is the answer? school choice it seems is i also think it is nowhere close to the problem that opponents are fearing. i have done a lot of research on the florida tax credit scholarship program. that is a voucher program that was providing scholarships to go to private school for a relatively low income kids. what have we learned about this? the first thing we are learning is that, who are the kids that use this? they are not just any low-income kids. they tend to be the kids performing the worst in the traditional public schools. it looks like that is a little bit of an argument in favor of mix match. maybe some are doing poorly and

parents were trying to find alternative options for them. whether or not they are succeeding is an open question. the second thing we have learned about this is kids who are participating in the voucher program are do we know better than average then the kids that would have done had they stayed in the public-school to the extent we are able to tell. there are to the statistics involved in that. more to be that i would really like. my professional judgment says they are doing no better or worse than average than they would have done on the public schools. it can interpret that positively or negatively. people who interpret that as negatively say if they are not doing any better, when are we taking money away from public schools to give it to private schools where kids are not doing better? maybe they are doing better in some of the different measures of types of things.

that, of course, we cannot measure it. if we could, i would be measuring it. i know families are happier with their choices. that is something we know also. every one of us are always happy with our choices. you are asked, are you happy with the car you paid $30,000 for? even if you kind of think it sucks -- i love the car. right? is that something that could be viewed positively or negatively? the third thing the -- this is something i view as a positive it. public schools seem to be doing a little bit better as a direct consequence of having this competition from the private schools. a little bit is the operative word. this has been misinterpreted, too. some say that public schools are

doing better so it is a definite slam-dunk. it is positive, consistent, but it is modest. it means that may be on the margin, especially certain types of schools, seem to be improving a bit as a consequence, at least along a certain set of observable lines. where do i cannot on the florida tax credit scholarship line? it is not that florida is blowing up the public schools to do this, where i come down on this, my view is that moderately favorable. there are some issues, but there are also some positive benefits. one other thing that we see here is that in the range of outstanding private schools participating in this program, there are a lot of outstanding pulp -- private schools. there are a lot of horrible private schools participating as

well. what we really need, and what i think is an important thing to happen is that any school whether a traditional public school, a charter school, or a private school, if you are accepting public money, there should be some accountability or equal time accountability. i think what we still see in florida and other states is a little bit of a double standard. public schools need all of these accountability and rules, but private school does not need as much. i do not think that is really true. if they were, how can you explain the truly desperately terrible private schools that exist? on average, for every truly desperately terrible part of school, there must be an amazingly good private school as well. or the average would not be the same as the public schools. what we need to do is try our hardest to get rid of the others.

whatever we can do, if we are going to have publicly funded private schools, we need to get rid of the illusion that somehow private schools are disciplined by the markets. i hope i am leaving you with a little bit of confusion. ultimately, i think there are no easy answers. if somebody were to tell me, what would he do as education czar, i would hate to have that job. i would leave you with one thought. then we will ask questions. the one thought is, you know, we should think a little bit about all of the education reform that has been going on and ask ourselves, is this really helping our students kids do better. there is some evidence that says it is helping along the lines of things a measured on test

scores. literacy skills, algebra, that kind of thing going on. we have to think a little bit about, what is special about american education? there are certain things special about american education that are hard to measure on this. i am part of the higher education sector, but it is true. american higher education is the best in the world. american k-12 system has done a pretty good job over the years including recently of preparing large fractions of the population to be successful in that the best higher education systems and in the world. that is before accountability, before school choice. one thing we need to think about is, as we are thinking about the policies, we need to think about the only things that are easy to measure, but also things that are intangible. we could end up cutting off our nose to spite our face. that would confuse us even more.

thank you. [applause] >> we have a few questions. only a few loaded once. the first one which i think is a good question, how can we get a good teacher and incentive to teach at a low performing school? >> how can we give a good teacher an incentive to teach at a low performing school? i think that there are a few different types of things that we can do. one thing, of course, would be conversation. if there are schools where we have a difficult time finding excellent teachers to teach that, i am a believer in certain markets. what market i strongly believe

in is the labor market. if we are having difficulty staffing certain schools -- it could be low performing schools, schools and a certain neighborhood or whatever. i am supportive of the notion of differentiated taste for people to teach in schools where it is hard to get teachers to teach. i do not see any other reason. i think there is not any other way to do that. the other choice besides compensation is to force people against their will to do things they do not really want to do. some school systems do that. other school systems to that only four recce teachers. once you become experience did you have status, then you can say, i want to go to the school i really wanted to teach that. we have two choices. we can force people to do things they do not want to do, or we

can make them want to do it. i am in favor of giving people reasons to do things other than a demanding they do things they do not want to do. except for when it comes to my kids. then they have to clean their rooms. >> this one requires you to be a lawyer. opportunities scholarships and florida were a declared unconstitutional. those were scholarships given to children who were in low performing and of failing schools. what is different about corporate tax scholarships and the mccay scholarship that makes the unconstitutional? >> an economist. i am not going to touch that one. >> that is the question our committee is asking.

we are hoping to get a legal opinion on that. the arguments we have heard is that the corporate tax rebates for charitable contributions. we will see how that plays out. here is another one. you mentioned you are going to meet with tony bennett tomorrow. he is the new commissioner of education. he is a supporter of school choice. however, he believes it should not stand as is. whatever school receives the money should be held accountable like public schools. how do you think of this will change school choice and not florida? >> i guess i have already gone on record in saying that i think schools that are receiving public money should receive similar types of accountability.

so i think commissioner bennett is definitely speaking my language when it comes to that. we do see that -- i view it a bit as a fairness issue. we're going to be saying, we want you, public schools, to compete with private schools, first of all, parents should have a certain type of the affirmation so that they can judge for themselves along the some different metric what the differences are between them. the big question becomes, how will it change? one possibility could be having to take the mcat. if you are participating in the scholarship program as a private school, you are required to

administer a nationally referenced test of your choice. it could be the stanford achievement test. for those of you at public schools that up until a few years ago what was called the fcat nrt, we do not offer that anymore. it does not have to be that. it could be the iowa test of basic skills. some of these tests -- it is a question now. some of these tests are more summative tests. there are evaluating a set of skills that have already been attained it. others like the iowa test is more informative it. they are intended to be telling features more about where the focus. the iowa test is administered in the fall and the stanford test at the end of the school year. private schools are able to choose amongst these things. it is hard to make these apple-

to-apple comparisons. i have been forced my hardest to make these comparisons but it is difficult. it is not uniform that. i will say that the ideas are not too dissimilar to what many people in the department of education and in the scholarship administration have been pushing towards, i know people in the school choice office and the department of education have for years been thinking exactly in this direction. the scholarship funding organization has as well. my hope is that there could be the rule of law behind it that because i think many of the key players in private school choice in florida actually want to see that which i would like to see as well. we have to have the laws to back it up.

>> one more question. does more towards lower the quality of the non choice school because of decreased funding due to lower student population. >> that is really hard. there are three different ways in which school choice can affect not choice schools. i talked about two of them a little bit. one of the competition. i told you that the availability suggests that providing school choice leads to a small but positive degree of competition. that was school choice is helping the not joyce schools. the second involves competition. who are the kids there? school choice can really go either way. it all depends. some school choice programs might stimulate the best and the brightest kids to leave a certain school.

there are often families that make a difference. especially in schools serving relatively disadvantaged populations with less family participation, that could be devastating to a school. on the other hand, suppose school choice is leaving some of the most disaffected kids to leave that school. that might help to improve the school. the composition think it, who stays and who goes, can work both ways. -- the composition think it, who stays and who goes, can work both ways. then we get to the revenue and the resources. the resources side is a mixed bag as well. at the level that the school system itself, if they are losing the resources, we have to think about the resources -- one jargon.t of a george begi

school systems are based on average cost. you cannot just hire 19 o20/20th of a teacher. if they lose the average cost, it may be the margin cost of the last kid, but it will only be pennies. multiplied by a lot and you can get into a real problem. at the individual school level, it is less clear what might be the case. it could be a case that individual schools might be better because of losing kids. for example, suppose there is a given school that now has a class size of 16 as opposed to 19 because the kids of every class have left. and they are probably not going

to go and combined the classes and now have a class size of 32. in a rich north shore illinois school, they would not do that. maybe they would in florida. i am not sure. you can do what ever met the want. that individual school might be made better off by losing a few kids if they get to keep all of the same teachers. now the class sizes have gotten smaller. in that regard, it is a mixed bag it. i think it is unquestionable it can hurt -- not definitely, but it can hurt. at the individual school it could hurt or potentially help. >> and david, thank you very much. [applause]

>> we have heard him talk about school choice for the past hour or so. now it is your turn. we will open up our telephone lines, facebook and twitter to hear we think about school choice and with the vouchers. here is how you can do that. our phone numbers -- on facebook, one of the questions we posted today was about school choice. on twitter, the hash tag to use -- we will get to your phone calls momentarily. a couple of facebook postings that have come in a couple of minutes. public schools will not work

when they have you since that -- and joining us this evening on c-span to talk about the issue of school choice is sean cavanah. joining us with education week and to lend his expertise and some of the findings. guest: thank you for having me. host: what defines a charter school? guest: a charter school is a

form of public school that traditionally operates with some autonomy or independence from the rules that govern such traditional public schools. the charter school has gotten a lot bigger in the united states over the past few years. today there are about 6000 articles serving anywhere between 2 million and a 2.3 million students. their numbers have doubled over the past decade. they now are in the 42 states with the most recent state be in washington state where voters last year through a ballot measure approved the creation of public schools -- charter schools. host: i wanted to give viewers a chance to see how the numbers have jumped from 2000 through 2013. in 2000 there were 300,000

students in charter schools. 2013, the most recent figures, 2.3 million students. what is driving the boom? guest: a lot has to do with policy. state legislatures have become more interested and governors of become more interested. they have approved the policies allowing them to grow. in some cases removing caps on their growth. in many cases i think a lot of people would argue it is demand from parents who want alternatives to the traditional public schools and in their states and the neighborhoods. it is a variety of factors. also, there is a board of first market for a charter schools and there ever has been. you have a charter schools that cater towards students whose trouble in school. you have a charter schools to try to set very high academic expectations.

charter schools, the menu of options for parents is a pretty broad one right now. host: we are interested in our viewers' experience with charter schools. we have callers on the line. washington, d.c. is on the line with tyroe. caller: to life for having this conversation this evening. -- thank you for having this conversation this evening. most of what i have determined to be prohibit there's to them having a great experience or a lesser experienced, sometimes the teachers get caught up in the dynamics of what they are actually trying to to get done within a given school and have the administrators change subject matters sometimes

midstream. there are always trying to catch up. i was wondering if he had any ideas about when the new administrators come to schools and their being assessed for their ability to be able to monochord teachers over a period of time and have a support staff, how host: well that works do you have a child and a washington d.c. charters? caller: yes, i do. guest: that is a good question. i think the question of new administrative coming into a school, and shaking things up and trying to put pressure on the teachers to increase student performance. clearly, that will be an issue with a charter schools. it will also be an issue at traditional public schools. i notice from having met a lot

of teachers in public schools over the years. the principle comes and as the boss and they are the captain of the school. they are going to have a major say in pacing the policies of the school. shaping the morale and the expectations for teachers. i think the circumstances he is describing are probably accurate when you are talking about charter schools, but they also apply to other schools as well. host: let's go to plymouth, texas on the democrats' line. welcome. caller: here in texas, the issue of testing and assessment. host: repeat your question once

again. i did not hear the specific question. caller: my first one is an assessment and school testing. i have seen in a lot of public schools, they do a lot of public test compared to charter schools. do you have an explanation for that? guest: i think it depends on the state's and what the circumstances are when comparing the performance of traditional public schools and a charter schools. there is no one clear answer on that. charter schools and public schools are required to participate in state tests. now, a lot more testing data is given to parents that was given to them at 10 or 20 years ago.

parents have more options to compare the results for their neighborhood schools against traditional public schools in the neighborhoods. we might get into this a little bit later. generally, the results are pretty mixed when trying to compare a traditional public schools on a whole versus charter schools. some studies show more positive results, but you will get others that show traditional public schools. host: here is a tweet from christina in texas talking about the issue of education -- gov. rick perry talked-about charter schools. [video clip] >> not every child learns for the same purpose. not every child thrives in the same schools. limiting a child to one opportunity does nothing more

but to limit the child's future. the way forward must involve more public charter schools, which will offer parents a tuition free alternative to their neighborhood schools. those innovative public schools already serve 150,000 students across texas with more than 100,000 on and the waiting list. it also is time to introduce scholarship programs that give students a choice, especially those locked into low performing schools. [applause] host: texas gov. rick perry talking about charter school and school choice. we are talking with sean cavanagh and your experience with a target schools and taking your calls.

let's go to vincent, indiana. helen is on the line. caller: this is only the second year in indiana they have had about juice. i am sure the catholic schools receiving the vouchers are good schools. it is my understanding it is unconstitutional. is that constitutional? host: any answers for our caller from indiana? guest: the short answer is it depends on the state you are in. as the caller may or may not know, the crucial point on which vouchers are allowed to go forward for which there stopped by the court is, what state

constitution says about vouchers. and in many states, the constitution forbids public funding from flowing to nonpublic schools or religious institutions. that is often called blaine amendments. what often happens is a voucher proposal will be put forward and make it into law. then if the state constitution is a very restrictive on public funding flowing to private or religious schools, it will be struck down. i believe the indiana voucher program has been the subject of a pretty lengthy court case. it would be one of many going on and run the country. host: indiana joins a dozen states including arizona,

florida, georgia, el -- illinois, maine, ohio, oklahoma, utah, vermont, wisconsin, and the nation's capitol. what is behind the what is behind the popularity of vouchers? guest: a couple factors. in 2010, we solve republicans made a lot of gains at the state -- we solve republicans made a lot of gains at the state legislature and taking control of the governor offices in the entry. republicans at that point controlled more seats. one of the things high on the education agenda was increasing private school choice. what we saw after 2010 was a pretty significant growth in private school voucher plans

across the country. that is one factor. for school vouchers, these programs have proven to be popular among parents who feel that their children attract -- are trapped and academically struggling. host: here on c-span this evening we are talking about schools and voucher choice. let's go to fountain hills, arizona. caller: hi. how are you this evening? host: fine, thank you. caller: my daughter went to a charter school for the first six years of her education. phenomenal opportunity for her to go.

i believe that young people should have an opportunity in education. it could have an option or traditional education. honestly, the voucher system, if i had a child that was coming into the school system, i would definitely look at some of the catholic schools or christian schools as an option. host: thank you for your call. guest: i think that among the people who support vouchers, you can hear some of the arguments put forward with the colors talking about. people -- what the caller was talking about. parents are taxpayers. why should they not allowed to be used to use the portion of x funding to send their children where they want? it could be a public school or

charter school or a private institution. so, when she talks about wanting to have that option, that is clearly one of the arguments. what a lot of public school advocates say is that private schools safe in off money from the public schools. that is not a way to raise academic achievement. host: over 50% of the charter schools in the country, 54% are elementary schools, 27% are secondary schools, and the combined schools is 19%. when they say combined, are they talking about a charter school? is that from kindergarten to high school? guest: probably. i would assume it is some kind

of combination. more likelyols oare to serve younger grades. they're trying to build from the ground up. they are trying to get a certain number of students and families involved and keep them on board. it is easier to do that. it is easier to start small than it is to try to serve everyone at once. host: back to the collars. california, good evening. caller: hello. host: you are on the air. caller: i would say that i agree with what governor perry said. why do we have to make a choice between supporting public education and supporting a good

education for the children? host: what is lacking california in terms of the charter schools are the use of vouchers? -- what is it like in california in terms of the charter schools or the use of doctors? vouchers? caller: we went to the charter because it offered more incentives at the level that my children were at than the public schools. the public school offered to move the voice up the grade -- up ahead, but theea charter allowed them to move up ahead at their pace. host: when you compare a charter school with a public school, tell us how they stack up. guest: the research on this

topic is mixed. when you look at nationwide studies of charters, one of the most recent and often cited ones was done by researchers at stanford university about three or four years ago. it was a nationwide study. they look at people in charter schools i believe 16 states. 17% of charter schools were outperforming traditional public schools. the larger number was around 35% -- or 37% -- i'm sorry. the rest was sort of even. public schools did not fare very well in that study. there have been other researchers that have come to

different conclusions. we're not going to find a study, at least not one that i have seen, that will settle this question of which type of school is the best option for all students. host: on our teachers and administrators line, maryland. what do you do in the school system? caller: i work with students in the fifth grade. i instruct them in enrichment. host: is this a public school system? caller: yes. host: thank you for joining the conversation. caller: i question is, how do you go about finding a charter school? and he seen an increase in test scores when students come out of the public schools and into charter schools?

guest: it depends on the state that you are in and the district. in most situations, there is a charter school authorizer. it is their job to approve or deny the creation of a charter school and oversee it shou. and then see how the charter school operates. then it comes back up for renewal and receipt to operate for another term. depending on the state you are in, you might go before a state entity or in some cases, universities that act as authorizer's. and some cases it is local school district. i'm not sure of the research on the students switching from the

traditional public sector to the charter school sector. and: punta gorda, florida are go ahead. hello? are you there? i think we lost them. let's go do idaho. -- to idaho. caller: i'm a teacher. host: welcome. caller: thank you. it is some kind of three-tier system in education. you have charter schools, if it schools, and outlook schools. -- private schools, and charter schools. are not definite agues that prove one way or another, but it is definitely about the learning environment.

the ambitious students and parents want to get away from the "riff raff." the wealthy will go with the private schools, the motivated will go to the charter schools, and the public schools -- my question is when enough kids and the money with the kids goes into charter schools, what will happen to the "left over kids with uninvolved parents" nor in public schools? host: do we see that already in some school systems? guest: that is an area that is receiving a lot of scrutiny duri. let's say you have the sur

motivated parents who work closely following their child's endemic progress. make sure they are in the right kind of school. they move them to a charter school. that is a school of choice. one of the arguments out there is that if you have a lot appearance who are moving their students out of traditional public schools, the regular public schools are going to suffer. there are concerns being raised right now at the -- about which charter schools are suspending or expelling students at a higher rate than public schools. we examined that in this week's "education week."

he talks about the overall impact on the traditional public schools. it is one that no one seems to know the answer to. it is on a lot of people's minds. a couple of facebook comments that you can weigh in at facebook.com/c-span. this is edward allen. he writes -- the land has an amazing school system. it may be the best in the world. they key is to nonstandardized nation. teachers -- do we want to make the school system worker keep draining it of resources? hank in minnesota is on the democrats line. good evening.

are you there? caller: oh, yes. thank you. i see this as two main issues. it is unfair for terrance -- parents to pay taxes and then if they want to send their child to a private institution, you have to pay tuition at that institution. it is a double whammy. second issue, if the school, the public schools in my opinion they are not customer driven. they are run by an elitist school board that did rates with the subjects of education are -- dictates what the subjects of education are. they promote homosexuality as a way of life, for example.

there are a lot of people who do not like that. it does not customer driven. it schools became customer driven, they would not have to worry about people leaving. host: do you have kids in the public system? caller: i do not. four are in school. in those days, he did not have as many issues. host: thank you for weighing in. sean cavanagh. guest: i suppose the caller resents some of the folks -- re presents folks who want other options. sometimes that is homeschooling their kids. the number of homeschooled kids has grown. sometimes it is private schools. one of the advantages of private schools for parents who choose them is not only candidate opus on very specific -- not only can

they focus on specific things or focus on religious values or other things, but they get to do their own thing free of many of the restraints on traditional public schools, which have to and offer a full range of services to everyone. when you talk about a different mission, you're talking about different way of going about that mission. host: we have with us sean cavanagh, a reporter and editor at "education week." wisconsin governor scott walker says he wants to expand the voucher program.

in the city of milwaukee, they have involved in the voucher program 112 private schools. almost 35,000 students. the total costs overall is 150 $4000. 30 eight percent comes from public school funds. another 62% of general revenue in the state. -- 38% comes from public school funds. another 62% comes from general revenue in the state shou. guest: acer does a model for a lot of voucher -- it served as a model for a lot of voucher programs around the country. states found that students

performed at about the same level as traditional public schools in milwaukee. in a recent study out of the university of arkansas shows positive results for students with vouchers. i believe the program has been shown pretty strong results in terms of graduation rates. the milwaukee voucher is held up as a model. the opinions of it will break down pretty much along the lines of voucher programs all over. governor walker believes that parents are buying into the program and it is proving popular. it might prove popular in other school districts around wisconsin. host: we are taking your phone calls and tweets.

this one says -- c-span, why are parents not being more accountable for their kids education? dumb kids equals don parents. -- dumb parents. caller: i'm an assistant principal in host. host: thank you for joining us. guest: the hedge fund managers -- that is a ton of money in charter schools. is that something you have looked into? guest: there are a lot of well- funded foundations. and philanthropists who are investing in charter schools.

that is true. one of the criticisms that charter schools get is that in many cases they are receiving extra funding that traditional public schools cannot benefit from. on the flipside, charter schools say they are disadvantage when it comes to other sources of funding. the ability to pay for buildings and facilities. the financial argument in terms of who is better off is not that clear. if the caller is talking about for-profit managers of charter schools, there are pretty significant number of those around the country and in some

cases, online charter schools. they have come under a lot of scrutiny. they can probably expect to come under a lot more scrutiny. host: michelle rhee on schools -- let's go to our republican line. jason. hello. caller: hello. i have a small comment to make. i do not see teachers losing tenure for not doing their job -- job. i'm an involved parent. to sit there and say i'm not involved is ludicrous. host: what are your options in utah? you said you wanted to pull your kids out of school. where would you put them? caller: charter schools.

a lot of friends have done this. i'm following this. they are doing this grading thing on a curve and that is not fair on the students. there should be something done about that. host: we'll hear from sean cavanagh. guest: if i understand correctly, he is making a switch to charter schools? host: yes. that is the plan. guest: he seemed dissatisfied with the quality of teachers and how they are evaluated. the advantages that charter school supporters site over traditional public schools is freedom from collective bargaining agreements governing teachers. charter schools have much more freedom when it comes to hiring and firing teachers and

scheduling them at certain times. much more flexibility on the howhole personnel front. a kind of ghost to the heart -- it kind of goes to the heart of one of the biggest areas appeal of charter schools. host: michelle rhee is written several books on education and adjust the issue of school choice. she will be on "book tv" this weekend. [video clip]>> i do not agree with universal vouchers. when it results in better outcomes and opportunities for kids. we support programs that are

geared toward low income kids that would otherwise be trapped in failing schools. it can be worked out and how much money the voucher could be. what i find curious is that absolute aversion that people have to the concept of vouchers and public education. two reasons. you do not believe in private dollars going to public institutions, you do not believe in pell grants. that is the same thing. when people get pell grants, government dollars go to harvard or yale or right ever. -- wherever. you do not believe in food stamps that can be redeemed. .edicare can also be used a the idea that we cannot do that

for public education is an odd thing. second, people make the argument when it comes to vouchers that we should not take the money out of the system. we should take that money and invest in the failing schools to make them better. here's is why that makes no sense -- we do not use that logic and any other part of our lives. if you went to a dry cleaner down the street and out of every 10 shirts you took, seven of them came back with huge burns of them, what would you do? you would stop going. if they said you cannot start giving us your business and your money because we need your money to be able to invest in new equipment and to train our employees. if you take your business away, we cannot do that. what would you say? not with my money. [laughter]

take much care with our laundry, should we at least take that much care with our kids? host: that was michelle rhee who will be on "book tv on school talking her book "radical -- fighting to put students first." she advocated for vouchers and compared it to pell grants. guest: i heard him make similar arguments to me when i interviewed her. she was talking about how she george -- changed her view of vouchers when she was chancellor of the d.c. system. she would encounter parents who wanted to get in to a good, public, traditional school in the d.c. area and they were not

safe. what she realized was she thought it made sense to also have private school options available to the students. d.c. has a voucher system that has been established by congress for some time. part of what she is saying needs to be part of the menu of options. they can compete with each other. that can lead to school improvement. at the same time, she sounds skeptical of the more universal type of vouchers in which, you know, money is going to go to the students who want to attend- schools. private schools.

ms. rhee is a democrat. that is keeping with that democrats who support vouchers. more support in a limited and targeted fashion. host: let's try to get to more phone calls. brookhaven, mississippi. welcome to the conversation. caller: yes, sir. i'm proud of the public school system. i served in the mississippi legislature. we have 33,000 residents. we have five public schools. we have one that is rated and a school. in my experience, every states dollar is different, but the main problem with public

education is that the teachers are overloaded with too many students in a classroom. there should not be more than 20 students in the classroom. that is the way i was raised are in if we could get back to t kind of system, i believe the system would work out fine. thank you, sir. host: sean cavanagh, any thoughts on his call for more teachers and smaller classes? guest: if you look at the research, it is pretty mixed and whether lowering class size will really produce student achievement. there are folks who do not think that will lead to a eight academic payoff for students. -- a big academic payoff for students. parents do not like to hear that the class size is increasing.

they want to know that the children are having a live interaction, face to face time witht their teachers. the sentiments by the caller is shared by many public school parents across the country. k is next. he is calling as a teacher from florida. what do you do? caller: i'm a teacher in the third grade. my question is related to standards. florida and many other states --but of impacts will incur to traditional schools and voucher programs? >> traditional public schools

are gearing up to give these common tests based on common standards, which have been adopted by 40 states. we have written that a lot of private schools are either considering or choosing to adopt a common course standards because they feel it makes sense to them. they feel the standards are sound. among charter schools, they are going to be expected to go along with the new common standards, as well. as we have reported, there are charter school operators who are nervous about this, saying this may infringe on our tradition of independence and our ability to shape the

curriculum in the way we want. others are saying, we are more agile, we are more efficient, we can finely tune our curriculum to meet the needs of these standards and do so in a way that is much more easily done than traditional public schools can. >> the department of education says 55% of the charter schools -- >> this is william. hello. >> who really would not be for vouchers, besides the teacher unions? in new york city, the teaching unions seem to be very powerful. they almost prevent vouchers from happening, at least in this area.

if the parents really want to have a choice, why not put the dollars in the parents' hands and let them decide which schools are best for their children. and which are succeeding. the schools that are failing will fail. putting the dollars in the parents' hands and letting them decide. it is public responded critic funded. >> your thoughts? >> it is very interesting because to hear people when they speak about a failing school. what that means are the

students who are there. when the people say, we will monitor schools that do well and they will succeed and the schools, which sounds neutral, when we are talking about young people in those schools failing. what i want to discuss is that charter schools do not have to abide by all of the teff and rules of public schools, yet, for statistical purposes, this is wrong. we are comparing them equally. let's say we do not have a true model because you cannot compare apples and oranges. >> i will let you go there. we talk about that a little bit. do you want to address some of her specific comments? >> she raises a good point. if you listen to what a lot of people say about these

comparisons between traditional public schools and charter schools, especially the national level, where you are comparing thousands of schools across states, sometimes, the studies can be quite revealing. what a lot of people have told me is, the kinds of lessons we should be seeking out are lessons on whether the different kinds of experiments charter schools are trying, because part of the reason they were created was so they can experiment in which traditional public schools cannot, and staff, and scheduling, and so on. perhaps part of what we need to be doing is looking at, what are the traits of the highly

successful charter schools and how realistic is it to think traditional public schools, that make up the vast majority of public schools in this country, how realistic is it to think how they could actually replicate those practices? >> we will wrap up our phone conversation and thank all of our callers. the conversation continues online. also on twitter. i also want to thank our guest this evening, sean cavanagh, editor and reporter for "education week." you can read his reporting on line. thank you for joining us. >> think you for having me. >> coming up, stanford hosts a clinic on religious liberty. john donahoe discusses the future of e commerce. the 2013 agricultural outlook.

>> on the next "washington journal," a conversation with colin goddard who is with the bradys center to prevent gun violence. then sever attacks emanating from china. our guest this john reed. a discussion of saving for retirement with paul taylor. live every day at 7:00 eastern on c-span. >> i think it's a pretty accurate that they do not live by the roles of both cases. i think they bend the rules to fit their circumstances. i think americans at all westerners tend to be a lot more legalistic and the things that we went in subcontract. once we see things are written on a contract, that is the be all and all. chinese will sign any contract or agree to any trade agreement and after the ink is dry they would try to figure out how to get around the requirements. it is just a relentless drive to

get a head. it is what has built the place over the last 30 years. this relentless drive to get a head and to get better and to improve. they see some of the restrictions we put on them in terms of trade. they see that as we are trying to hold china down. we basically operated in a world without rules for years to build our economy up another we are up to the top are try to hamstring them or tie them up with rules and regulations to hold china down. >> keith richburg on 34 years of reporting and insights around the world sunday at 8:00. >> if blockade is the principal naval strategy of the northern states, the principal naval strategy of the seven states is commerce raiding. one gun on a pivot between the

masts, if you're going against merchant ships, one is all you need. the idea was, come along side and put a prize crew on board, a ticket to a fort where a judge could adjudicate it. sell it at auction and you have to keep all the money. because it depends entirely on the profit motive, the ship owner paid the men, the ship itself, supply of food. he expects a return on his money. the crew expected prize money. without from the ports where they could be condemned, you cannot be making a profit. therefore, confederate profit- sharing that out almost immediately. it lasted three months are slightly longer. maritime on to print yours found out they could make more money blockade running. >> craig symonds looks at the

civil war at sea sunday night at 10:00 on c-span 3. >> stanford university law school recently opened a religious liberty clinic, the only clinic of its kind in the country. last month, students heard about the type of cases the clinic will handle. panelists include a u.s. appellate court judge, an attorney that work for two supreme court justices and a rabbi and give the this is one hour and a half. >> first of all, welcome to our panel here. more importantly, the inaugural event of the first law school clinic on religious liberty.

i am not a judge, but if i was, i would have been banging my gavel, but we are here and we have started her, and let me say before i have an opportunity to introduce the panel, that it is a true pleasure to be here and a true honor to be present for this occasion just by way of personal anecdote, to get a sense of why what we are doing is so important here, my first job was built on a dare. i had a thriving baseball card business going up, buying and selling them. i never got a summer job because i was making more money buying and selling baseball cards to my little friends. when i was about 15, a work colleague of my father said,

you will never ever get a job at mcdonald's because of your turban. i said, you are wrong. i can get a job at mcdonald's. based on a dare, i give up my lucrative baseball business and work for mcdonald's. low and behold, two weeks later, i was indeed fired. it was not for the reason you might think or that we feared. what happened was during a low in the afternoon shift, i had a big mac sauce fight with one of my co-workers. and i was fired. [laughter] that said, the concern my community had with regards to the interception of the expression of their faith in the public square, are very real issues. the very real issues here in the united states today that still exist and having this law school in a wonderful marriage

with the fund, the gold standard meets the gold standard, and they had a baby called the religious liberty clinic with jim over there, it is quite a marriage and bodes well. i welcome you here. i am very honored to be here. let me introduce the panel and we will hand it off. immediately to my left is a name everyone knows. the professor's bio is there for you. i will not read from it. i am all struck as a law student. a long time ago, i did read his articles. mine was on religious liberty,

a legal clinic we had to take to graduate and write a paper. at the time, the act was still more than the federal government. i wrote my paper about that and read some of his comments on it. it is a pleasure sitting on the panel of someone i read when i was in law school. the second to my left is judge bea. i will not read his bio but it is very inspirational to know he is in a position he is in now. speaks to the strength of our country that we can incorporate and elevate americans of any background and make them a part of the decision makers in our society. two to my left is hanna's smith. i will say this.

i read her bio. let me say this about this clinic and the work with religious liberty. i am a sikh who happens to be liberal. let me say this. in this work, there are many issues -- and it is not like this in the rest of washington -- that progressives and conservatives agree on. there are many issues. the beauty of the marriage between my organization and the fund is we found those intersections and we worked hard together. having hannah and being able to work with someone like her is part of the work with the fund speaks to the strength of people being able to find ways they agree, taking religious

liberty and lifting all of our boats by fighting for one community. more to my left, rabbi meir soloveichik. i will say this. i had a chance to read his indication he gave at the republican national convention. if you have not had a chance, it is not in the bio, but it is worth looking up. it speaks to values of liberty that impacts us all. it is quite inspirational. finally, all the way at the end is the proud papa and proud mama. our hopes are with him and his leadership of the clinic. i am so happy he is here. i will hand it off to judge bea.

>> thank you very much. i am very happy and honored to be here to inaugurate the religious liberty clinic with a distinguished panel of knowledgeable speakers. the clinic in this area is needed to clarify through litigation. at least one area of religious questions and the display of religious subjects in the public area, the public square. a year ago, justice thomas highlighted the apparently confused state of supreme court jurisprudence in this area and the denial of the utah highway patrol association vs. american atheists. he wanted the court to grant to clear up as far as the crosses placed along utah highways to commemorate fallen troopers, whether the lemon test should

apply to religious displays in public areas. he said, since the inception of the endorsement test, we have learned a nativity scene displayed on government property violates the establishment clause. except when it does not. he was referring to the nativity scene unconstitutionally placed in the courthouse that was an issue in the aclu case. it constitutionally placed in the rhode island park. he went on to say they display the 10 commandments on government property and that also violates the establishment clause except when it does not. a text was hung in the

courthouse in mccrery, and it was unconstitutionally. and a slab place in the public park was constitutional. finally, he said, a cross displayed on government property violates the establishment clause held here in utah, except when it does not. the cross is on county seals and buildings and they were unconstitutional. a cross sculpture outside the city's complex and ural crosses on the school wall was constitutional. there was hope on the cross issue that it might be cleared up in a case that involved an 8 foot tall cross in the middle of the federal park. until the land was sold to a veterans' organization.

a cross by the side of a public highway marking the place where a state trooper perished was said to need not be taken as governmental support for beliefs. the case was remanded for further proceedings. i commiserate with justice thomas that the utah highway case was for a totally different reason. on like justice thomas, i was able to see quite clearly the reason why apparently conflicting decisions were reached in the 10th amendment and cross cases. i am surprised the line drawn in those cases has not been commented on. it is all quite simple if you

just pay attention to the facts. the prohibited need to be seen was in the courthouse. in the other, it was in the park. the 10 commandments, it was in the county courthouse, and that it was in the park. crosses, they were inside county courthouses, while the others were outside. this led to a bright line of authority which lawyers could advise clients and judges to decide cases. if it were constitutional. [laughter] under a roof, it was unconstitutional. thank goodness the role is not

completely abandoned by the courts. we are told it is not a decision of merits and does not create precedents. i am here to urge the religious liberty clinic to litigate to a clear determination, does the rule still stand? [laughter] i will now call upon each of the panel members in the order in which they were introduced and i will speak for approximately 10 minutes. then we will open up, if we have time, to the rest of the people here to ask questions. professor mcconnell. >> thank you. one of the most revealing an inspirational moment around the founding occurred in philadelphia in celebration of

the ratification of the constitution. the city decided to hold a great public festival in honor of the ratification. there was, of course, food involved. so they had tables of food to ease the occasion. among the tables of food at the public celebration was a table of food appropriate for the jewish residents of philadelphia, a table of kosher food. i think this event is emblematic of something that was different in the united states from any other previous nation. we were not the first place to have some kind of religious

freedom, but this public celebration in philadelphia shows what kind of religious freedom was going to be enjoyed in the united states. first of all, it is one based upon principles of inclusion. it is welcoming. it is not mere toleration. it is not that we have some officially dominant group, although, demographically, there was a dominant group. not officially and not publicly. instead, the others are not just tolerated, but welcome and are fully part of the event. -- fully part of the event, and secondly, this is in public. there have been regimes in which the freedom of religion is understood to be a completely

private matter. in the statement by mendelssohn, in connection with france, he said to be a citizen in the streets but a jew at home, but that is not the message you get from the stable of kosher food in philadelphia. it is ok to be a jew in public, too. it is not a matter of expressing to the private. the spirit of freedom is perhaps unique to the united states in the world, but even here, even with that kind of sounding, and even with the words of the first amendment to express that, things have not

always been so happy, and especially not always so happy for minorities in america. he was not then chief justice but the man who was going to become chief justice of the supreme court fought on the convention to exclude roman catholics. it was a big fight. he was defeated alternately, but that was an attempt, and it was not long after, and that was a time when catholics constituted less than 1% of the

population of the united states and were no threat out all. as larger numbers of roman catholics came to these shores, especially from ireland but also from other places in europe, the conflict between catholics and protestants became much more severe. in one famous decision, a 12- year-old public school boy was beaten with a cane, because he refused to recite the words of the lord's prayer from the protestant version of the king james bible. when the people of the school board, the government of philadelphia voted to allow roman catholic students from the public schools to use their

own version of the bible, and riots broke out in philadelphia, and the catholic church was burned down. in the wake of the civil war, the president of the united states made a speech to an important political event in which he said now that the civil war is over, the great divide is going to be between between superstition on the one side and enlightenment on the other, and he meant the divide between roman catholics and protestants. and as the 19th century wore on, normans became one of the major targets. they were on the verge of attacks. the entire country was in salt lake city preparing to attack mormons in utah, and had it not been for the civil war breaking

out and those troops were wanted elsewhere company the mormon wars would have started, and as the century wore on, congress voted to disband the church and sees all its property. one of the most ironically named cases in the history of the supreme court toward the end of the 19th century is the case called the late church of jesus christ of holding the act of congress, which approved the dissolution of the church and seizure of its property. other groups have had difficulty as well.

thevah's witnesses were principal of victories in the middle of the century. i believe it is 30 cases involving conflicts between jehovah's witnesses and local governments got to the supreme court during this time. the witnesses do not win all of them, but they win almost all of them, except they did lose the one in which the challenge being required to pledge allegiance in school, this is prior to the addition of words,

under god, so this had nothing to do with that. it had to do with pledging allegiance in general, and the supreme court of the held that during the beginning of world war ii, acts of violence against jehovah's witness broke out all over the country, so we have principles we start with and principles we stand for, but they are principles that continually need to be fought for. just because they are on the books does not mean they are going to be enforced. it requires vigilance. it requires effort. it requires lawyers, and that is what we are here about. garrett every era has its own

issues. do not expect the same problems today, but every era throes of its own religious conflicts, and i want to conclude by guessing what are the main sources of conflict we will see. it seems to me there are two. one of them is spurred on by the increasing diversity of religious practice in the united states. in one hand that tends to support and strengthen the underlying political support for religious freedom, but it also creates problems in bureaucracy. it becomes so complicated to deal with problems, so i think a lot of the cases we see and some of the cases the clinic have lined up to litigate are not relieved bigotry cases, but they are bureaucratic indifference cases.

it is where we cannot bother, we cannot take the trouble to deal with these pesky people wanting to do on things but we do not quite understand i do not always sympathized with. it is easiest to say one-size- fits-all and the same rules apply to everybody, so i think bureaucratic inconvenience is a major source of problems in our era, and this is maybe a little more skeptical and a little bit darker, but i do also think sociologically in this country that we are developing a somewhat different religious divide. for many decades, the largest religious divide was the protestant-catholic divide, and a lot of religious liberty

issues swirling around that problem. i think, and i think sociologist would support the increase in the device is not between protestants and catholics, not between one religious group and another but between religiously committed citizens and those who are not, some of those being militant atheists and some being indifferent. we are going to see these clashes between those with deep commitments to a variety of traditions, all different but having something in common, namely this type of allegiance for those who think it is reactionary and do not approve, so my guess is if this clinic is going to be addressing the religious freedom issue, i think we will probably see each of those, but this i know for sure.

it is needed. it is not because the united states is uniquely and persecuted. it is not. i believe we are the freest and most welcoming country and the world. i think there is a lot of the spirit of the table but philadelphia is still among us, but not always, and we still need to fight and to litigate and to protect. >> now we are going to hear from the rabbi in new york.

>> thank you, judge. it is an honor to join a distinguished panel. the real joy as we celebrate this extraordinary occasion. i want to analyze the american- jewish perspective of the uniqueness in america. yogi berra once once called the mayor of dublin, ireland was jewish. he said, only in america. my hope is to reflect on a certain only in america story that allows us to understand what we are celebrating tonight. it was july of 1776 at a colonial jew by the name of jonas phillips sent a letter to

an acquaintance uprising his friend of the extraordinary events occurring in philadelphia. he displayed a copy of the declaration of independence. his letter is in the london department of public records office. the ship bearing this letter was ordered by the british, who could not make heads or tails of the communication but for the copy of the declaration and closed within. seeing the declaration, the british thought it was a patriot-coated communication, so they brought back to england for further study. his letter was innocuous, and the sole reason the british were unable to read it was because it was written in

yiddish. the letter may have been insignificant, but jonah did embody the declarations principle. he became the first advocate for religious liberty in this new nation. when the constitutional convention met, philip wrote a letter complaining of all public office holders in pennsylvania were required to affirm the new testament was given by divine intervention. he said, it is absolutely against the religious principle of the jew and is against his conscience to take any such notes. he has been out they create a country in which in his words come on all of society is on equal footing, meaning we are able to engage public service while remaining true to their respective police.

phillips added, of the jews have been faithful, and they have been foremost in assisting the states with their loss. they have bravely fought and bled for liberty they cannot enjoy, so consider there are 3000 jews in north america at this point, and he is writing to george washington, the most famous man in america, and telling them they were not truly free. the constitutional convention ended up creating a constitution that bans a religious test for federal. he was called to testify in a philadelphia court on a saturday as courts were in session six days a week.

phillips refused, explaining saturday was his sabbath, and he believed of true quality demanded he be allowed to mandate the dictates. he called this the first recorded case raising free exercise issues following the adoption of the first amendment. phillips' arguments fell on deaf ears, and he was fined 10 pounds for refusing to violate his religion, but the story does not end there. if you have ever to word monticello, thomas jefferson's home, you might have missed the jewish material area, which reads, levy died 5591, jewish year. this is the daughter of phillips. she was very closer to the home

than jefferson himself. we be ended of buffeting the estate and saving it from ruin. it is fitting and perhaps providential that the man who lived his life fighting for religious equality fathered a family and save the home of the man who authored the declaration that all men are created equal. the story of the family and the jewish graves provides us with a platform with which to approach to religious liberty, seeing monticello as a home different faiths can preserve together. they used to discuss whatever biblical passage he was reading. as the blair said in britain, we do not do god. this was a private thing.

it was just him and the prime minister, and he would ask religious questions on his mind. he said, i have reached the boring part of the bible. he said, which boring part have you reached, the prime minister? blair says, the tabernacle. it does go on a bit, doesn't it? it does. the book of exodus describes 600 nurses, the different tribes contributing -- 600 verses, the different tribes contributing whatever they have to creating a tabernacle in which to serve

god. the creation of the universe in genesis by god, 34 vs.. he pointed out synagogues are built by a committee, so it takes much longer. the lesson he says is not only theological. it is political. the tale of tabernacle and appears not in leviticus, but rather in exodus, where israel is emerges as a coveted nation. he says, they must build something together. some brought metals. others jewels. others their skills. unlike the creation of the world are the mighty alone, the tabernacle indicates it requires individual efforts by many. how do you turn our group of people into a nation? god answer is dazzling in simplicity. a nation is filled by building.

you get them by creating something together. the tabernacle is integration without assimilation. we are not all the same. we each have something unique to contribute, sunday we can give. stockholm we build together, and the tabernacle story teaches us we need not deny our differences to come together as one nation, so it is fitting jonas phillips family saved jefferson's home and gave it to america, an embodiment of the home we built together, and the jewish headstone represents integration without assimilation for which jonas phillips thought. the founders believed only by allowing religious difference can jeffersonian the quality be achieved. if people of faith find themselves common on and not only then will they find

themselves on an equal footing. they apply this the quality and religion different from race. human equality means differences based on race are irrelevant and must be overcome. the ideal of free exercise of religion is that people of different religious convictions are different and those are precious and must not be disturbed. this is an eternal testament of the ability of americans to preserve our differences while being welcome for unique contribution we can make to this country, and it is an eternal reminder. we need reminding of this once more. in an age many seem to believe religious difference or even

faith itself is not worth protecting. and this past year we have seen the administration put forward an argument to an incredulous supreme court. two centuries after jonas phillips was fined for refusing to obey a legal obligation that violated his religious beliefs, they threaten similar things for refusing to obey a law that violates their religious beliefs. if americans cannot serve society while remaining true to their beliefs, jonas phillips would say they are not truly free. this story is as important as it ever was, and that is why i feel so privileged to be here as this clinic is being inaugurated. on july 4, 1826, 50 years to the day the declaration was signed, john adams died in quincy, massachusetts. his famous last words were thomas jefferson survive. jefferson passed away the very day several hours before, but

adams spoke the truth. thomas jefferson did survive because the ideas he articulated endured. 200 years ago jonas phillips fought for the realization of principles. this clinic carries on the funding, to make america the home we can truly build together to fulfill the vision. it is my hope that through the success of your efforts at the clinic in stamford we will be able to echo adams and say thomas jefferson survives. monticello's legacy survives, and jonas phillips lives as well. thank you very much. >> our next speaker is hannah smith.

>> thank you very much. it is an honored to be with you today. i just want to recognize some of my colleagues. our executive director, are two deputy general counsel, as well as art director of development. -- our director of development. they have been instrumental in helping bring to pass this day, and i want to recognize their great efforts. i would like to commend the efforts for his leadership in creating the first religious clinic in the nation. i think it will unite people of goodwill who seek to protect civil liberties. i want to congratulate them for

their work that promises to be a successful endeavor. i was asked to provide some background on the fund for religious liberty. some of the issues of the day as well as some of the litigation efforts we are currently involved in 10 minutes. i am going to do my best. this is a non-profit, non- partisan public interest law firm based in washington, d.c. it is the only such organization in america that protects religious freedom of people of all faiths. we were founded in 1994 by a devout catholic, and since then the fund has defended religious freedom, where people of all faiths including hoodies,

hindus, native americans, zoroastrian to. we believe religious freedom is a god-given right to all people. we believe protecting business rights to protection is important to our society. we choose our cases carefully to set a precedent, important issues throughout the country. we were in the court of public opinion by appearing in national and local news outlets and also in the academy through publications and now through this clinic. we were domestically and abroad, but tonight i am going to speak primarily about domestic litigation initiatives. our national concerns to religious freedom today, i want

to talk to you about some of those briefly today in the time i have with you. the first area is the effort to restrict, to organize and shoes religious leaders -- choose religious leaders. some of you may recall a significant victory last year at the supreme court. we have in the audience the attorney who argued that case before the supreme court, so the background is that for 40 years the supreme court recognized a constitutionally- based rule recognizing several decisions for employment laws. the office argued the

ministerial exception should not exist. this was challenging the existence of religious a economy and the hiring and firing of religious employees. alternatively, they argue even if there were an exception, it should be limited only to those who perform religious functions. last january, a unanimous opinion of the supreme court rejected both of those arguments, calling them extreme, remarkable, and untenable. i want to underscore how rare it is to get unanimous consent of the supreme court, especially in a case like this. they held business is a protection. you might ask, why is there

still a concern? the answer is found in this particular category in another decision from 2010. administrators from private universities around the country are using that decision to create and enforce policies which inspires student organizations to allow students who do not adhere to their fates to be leaders in their student groups, and these policies are having the effect of driving religious student groups off campus and perhaps into extinction, so that is the first trend. the second area of concern is discrimination against churches and synagogues and mosques and want to exercise rights to use

privately owned property or enjoy it now access to public property. now they recognized the islamic center in tennessee when local community groups tried to prevent the building of a mosque in the community. although the building commissioner approved a mosque in our regular meeting, after having provided regular public notice for such a meeting, a state court judge held the notice was not position, because of the tremendous public interest surrounding the mosques. the judge suggested they should have been subjected to heightened legal standard. we filed a separate lawsuit along with the department of justice requesting the court grand buildings, arguing subject in the mosque to different legal standards and a christian church violates the constitution. the judge granted a temporary restraining order, which meant the mosque was able to complete

the finishing touches of the building in time to celebrate ramadan. the third area of concern touches upon conscience rights. good it is religious freedom of individuals to be free from government regulation that require them to expensive drugs it violates their religious convictions. they actually represent several religious pharmacists in illinois and washington state, challenging regulations and require them to stop and dispense what they believe to be abortion-inducing drugs, even when doing so violates their convictions. in illinois, the regulations have been definitively struck down. that is the case are referred to. my colleague continues to

represent our client after the district court found the regulations unconstitutional. the fourth area of concern is protecting the liberty of incarcerated not persons. the fund currently represents several jewish inmates, challenging the department of corrections in texas and florida to make sure the clients are provided kosher food during their incarceration. are lawsuits are based on the act that prevents the government from placing a substantial burden on religious exercise of the prisoner, and even if it was ruled general of applicability, and those cases are ongoing. this area of concern relates back to the judges' comments, and that is the area of all evidence of public life. this is manifested in lawsuits insisting courts stripped

undergone from the pledge of allegiance. the becket fund has been bringing this lawsuit from california to massachusetts. they say the phrase under god confirms a foundational premise, namely that human rights are not in doubt by the state but are rather derived from a source beyond the state's discretion. but they did not advance religion but reflected deeply rooted political philosophy of the founding fathers. they believed these rights derived from a source greater than a government made of man. the ninth circuit agreed and

upheld the pledge based on those arguments. i want to touch upon the last areas of concern. the next area of concern is state provisions rooted in discrimination against faith communities. they have recognized it was rooted in anti catholic bigotry. today they are used as one weapon that would enable students attending private schools to benefit from public funds on an equal basis with public school students. the fund currently represents several disabled children and their families in lawsuits brought by the school districts against the students. the school districts are seeking to prevent these disabled students from using state scholarship funds in private schools tailored to the needs of these disabled children, because they may be religiously affiliated, and they are using the state amendment. finally, i will briefly touch

on the last category, which is the government mandates that force individuals and communities of faith to choose between violating a law and violating religious convictions. this is something alluded to earlier. the mandate cases, there are currently over 40 of them going over the country. the becket fund filed the first of these cases last fall, and we are listing on behalf of eight different clients in several courts around the country, so in closing, i want to see the need for this religious clinic in stanford is the queue when we find ourselves drawn into litigation on all these fronts i elaborated on, defending the rights of organizations and individuals. i fully believe they will train the next generation of lawyers to do the work for jews, christians, and people of all faiths.

thank you very much. >> our next and final speaker is the clinic director. he will speak on the advancements of religious liberties. >> thank you, a judge. thank you, fellow panelists and all of you for joining us. a special thank you to our friends from the beckett fine. it is great to have you with us. as evidenced by your presence in today's festivities and ended the enthusiasm of our students who are here with us, we did we are off to something special in founding this project. we also think the future of religious liberty is bright. what i thought i would do is

take a different tack and describe our clinic and explain why we think religious liberty provides a fantastic opportunity to teach students to be first rate lawyers in service of those in need.

it is just over an hour. >> good morning, everyone.

thank you for joining us. it was truly an early hour on the west coast. john joined ebay ico and 2008 ^ he took the reins from meg whitman. -- ceo in 2008 and took the re ins from meg whitman. you can explain that later. the stock closed yesterday at re than $55 per share. it is an all-time high. you came through an interesting route. you worked a a consultant at various companies for over 20 years. he also played baskeall at your, moder alma mater. he missed again to be here. -- a game to be here. we appreciate that. raise your hand if any of you have ordered anything from ebay

before? kenya raise your hand -- how many of you have used paypal -- can you raise your hand -- how many of you have used paypal? what does that tell you? your stock is at this high. as i mean there are not a lot of customers to get -- does that meanhere are not a lot of customers to get? rebecca, we're on the cusp of what i think is one of the int exciting periods in two numerous industries in which we participate -- retail and payments. i think we will see more change in how consumers shop and pay the next three years and we have seen in the last 10 to 20 years.

war change in three years and consumer behavior -- more change in three years and consumer behavi. how anyf you have an ipad? ok. many of you and soon your media consume your media in a different way? me, too. i get my news, entertainment, tracking the markets -- i want my media when i want it, how i want it, when i wanted. i do not have that newspaper on my driveway or the magazine that comes on time. the ipad is less than three years old. we talked about digitization in media in the 1990s. a piece of technology comes out.

there is transformative change in a short amount of time in consumer behavior. in the media industry, there has been some winners and some losers. the same thing is about to happen to retail. in this case, a piece of technology is having a strong affect. the smartphone is blurring the line between online and off- line. if i was up. three years ago, i would say that ebay compete in e-commerce. but consumers have grabbed hold and that line between e-commerce and retail is obliterated. we just call it commerce now. think about this. in over half of all retail transactions in the us bank last year, the consumer access to the web

happens at se point during their shopping experience. when you have not checked a web at some point are done a search or figured out what it is that you wanted to die, maybe use read some reviews are at prices. people were doing on their laptops. now they're doing on their mobile phones and on the streets and in the store. >> are people moving from looking online to buying online? >> close. it is a seamless device. what a consumer does is to buy whatever. i went to buy a new pair of shoes online an. i will check which is i want. i want them. i will buy them and have them shipped to me tomorrow. or i want them and i want to try them on goo. i want to make sure they are available at the local nordstrom and try them on. there is a new delivery service we have built so i can order it from any retailer and have it

to liver to within an hour. the point that the consumer is in charge. they have a mall in their hands. they want a seamless across online and off-line. they do not see it as different . ages by stuff. -- they just buy stuff. >> is mobile growing? >> me that early on mobile. there has been many downloads of ebay mobile apps. we got $13 million a volume. that is volume or people are closing a transaction on a mobile device. people are biting -- buying on ebay mobile. mole payment, $14 billion. that is not swiping. that is someone buying something on a mobile device.

the curves are stunning. it happens all over the world as more and more people are using their mobile devices to shop and to pay. >> ebay chicago with an image. -- has struggled with an image. how are you trying -- to be honest, i think some people have that image. you reverse that in many ways and are selling many new goods. how are you trying to really change your image? >> what happened was that the internet is an unparalleled lace for a company to reach -- place company to reach global ale. st as an internet company can distract, it can be disrupted. -- can disrupt, it can be

disrupted. over the last five years, we have completely reinvented ebay. it is still an onle marketplace. but five years ago, it was 75% option. -- actuioion. -- aution. -- auction. the ebay of today has 70% as prices and 30% auction. we have 80% new items and great deals from all over the world. moneyback guarantee. ebay of today is growing attractively in the fourth quarter in the u.s. user growth is accelerating. people that have used ebay like it. a lot of people are coming back from four or five years ago and

are liking what they are finding. we are getting a lot of new users through mobile. we had 4 million new users last year who registered on a mobile device. >> my son is into basketball shoes. en i told him i was interviewing you, he was actually impressed. [laughter] that doesn't happen often in my world. he said that ebay is a place for shoes. i was a little confused as what to do. and you explain in fashion -- can you explain in fashion how you are not necessarily selling? you're a buyers to t sellers. -- matching buyers to the sellers. >> part of the reason is because ebay is on the top 10 on the iphone. that is where all of the action is. more retailers are realizing

they will not get on the top 10 of the deck. we are. more retailers want to get their stuff on ebay. we will send someone into a store. we give the consumer a choice. ta issuesshoes. have a letter retailers and suppliers. -- we have a lot of retails and suppliers ca. what is happening is that technology is beginning to come along. i think we are in the beginning part of how these devices will be used in how you shop and pay . two examples. ebay fashion app. if you wanted to buy in i've you would getone, back iphones.

makes sense. let's say i want to pretend that i like your shoes and maybe they are basketball shoes. i like that. shoes. what would you type in? blue shoes? no. you take a picture. i go to the ebay fashion app and it will search issues that have that color and that pattern. it will bring back results in my size in that shoe. it is a search technology we are using. within a year, by the end of this year, will be able to take a picture of your watch or anytng and have it and that inventory that matches it. think of how that can change shopping. you are walking and you see something you like and you take a picture. what would that costs?

that is one example of how we will use these devices differently. the second is geo-targeting that is eedded inside these devices. today i can go into the paypal mobile app and press local and find a local merchant that accepts paypal here. i can in essence check in. let's say that i want to go to the deli for lunch. i hate standing in line. i can check in and then the deli has my name on the cash register. they know who i am. would you like your regular? i have it waiting for you. it would allow us to be known when we walk into a store and get personalized service. thenhe story knows that you are in the store and they can have a personal relationship with you -- the store knows that

you are in the store and they can have a personal relationship with you. this is what will drive the shift that i was describing earlier. >> how do you adjust privacy concerns? i would say that i have some issues going into a store and having the retailer know who i am and what sort of close i like tclothes i like. can you opt in our out? >> absolutely. at some point there will be a trigger point wre we will have a national dialogue about what is acceptable and what is not. number one, it your information and purchasing information is never shared. we will not share that. two, with something like check

in, you just need to opt in. if you want to check into a deli that you trust and not anywhere else, that is fine. i think the iphone is a good example. do one you location to be known -- that you want your location to be known? you need to make that choice. give the consumer the choice. we are going down that path. i think it is the right path. i think it will be necessary for us to have some national dialogue and debate on privacy so we do not have a flash point and then overregulated and slow down innovation. by and large, we have a desire to be responsible. rvey done andailor rau amazon and ebay were in the top 10.

>> i want to talk about amazon for a moment. your business models are very different. they have strong revenue, but there is a lot of costs involved in the distribution center. you have no interest in running your own division center that way they do? >> i think amazon andhat we do well both in the same broad market, we have a very different approach. thathasn't made times there'll there'll be multiple winners in commerce. it is not a zero-sum game. it is a billion-dollar commerce market that is going through a transfeormation. er building out warehouses. -- they are building out warehouses. jeff has done an incredible job. we do not own inventory. what we do is partner with sellers with small, medium, and

large sellers and helping them and is commerce environment. -- in this commerce environment. is our biggest competitor, but i have many stores across the u.s. why can i not use those to get goods to my consumers better than anyone else can? what is being billed out is what i referenced earlier. it is an ecosystem that allows the consumer choice. i can buy it and look at it. a lot of people like to shop and go to the store. most of us may not in this room . i can buy it and have it

delivered to me. we have been app called ebay no w. people buy and have it delivered to them within an hour. anyone here who has bought something and has it delivered to the house and someone needs to be there to sign it or delivered to the office and and it is in the mail room somewhere and the ups but the sticker here and you need to call to get the sticker -- they do not deliver on saturday -- home delivery or even office delivery can be frustrating. what ebay does is it delivers it to your mobile home. the courier literally knows where you are. i'm sitting on the fourth floor of my office and i go down to the coffee. they bring it to you. you watch where the courier is. it is an actual delivery.

again, you choose that. i think choice, retailers are being aggressive and giving consumers choice whether it is chips overnight and picked up in the store are brought to them quickly. >> there is some concern that amazon knows more about the consumers. you match buyers and sellers. people on amazon prime can have something delivered. they have more da on the customers. >> we have the same data of our customers. we have a lot of data of our customers. here is the difference- we are trng to allow retailers to get more data on the customers. here is something i did not realize.

i had a retail ceo say to me, john, here is what i'm concerned about. i can tell you exactly what items got sold and which of my -- in which my 2000 stores. down to the hour of the day. i can tell you roughly how many customers came into my stores, but i do not know who they were and i do not know who bought what. an off-line retailer does not know who is in their stores. the credit card system cannot be tied to the point of sale system. you get the last four digits. they do not get what the person bought. they cannot link it to the customer information system. john, i look at you and amazon, you guys know who drove into your parking lot and who walked into your front door and what

aisles the brightest -- they browse down and every item they look at and pick up or put back on the shelves and what they bought. itcares us that we do not have that information. they say, we want a technology partner. paypal is now available. when you pay with paypal in a store, the retailer gets to have the customer relationship with you. rebecca, we know what you bought. we can ge you loyalty points. we enable retailers to build a relationship with you. they can provide more customized service. our platform enables it. >> have many retailers do you have off time -- off-linusing paypal? there were some glitches i believe using paypal.

can you explain how that works? apparently it is in the cloud and not on your phone. >> the business model is simple. you put in your credit card or bank card in a digital wallet in the cloud coul. that is what it is. people have a digital wallet in the cloud that is encrypted. any time you use paypal online or on a mobile device or in a store, your information never leaves that encrypted vault in the cloud. there is an encrypted code. you enter in your password and your financial information never comes to the airwaves or into a computer or in a mobile phone. .hat is what paypal is goo good consumers do not want to enter

their financial information in their phone. they are freight it might get stolen. -- they are afraid it might get stolen. wi paypal, it is one click. a credit cardve in my cloud wallet. i can use may american express card to use paypal. in the off-line world, we have connected with 20 through the largest retailers in the country. we have integrated with their existing hardware and software. if any of you go into home depot this weekend, by whatever and when you go to the checkout line, say i will pay with paypal. th will show you the little swipe their. -- there. you press paypal goo.

then you are done. you just paid. hands-free payment, they call it. you do not need your wallet or your mobile phone. the receipt is texted to you the minute that you pay so you know exactly what you bought. what is happening in the external world is that you can we signed a partner ship with discover. with paypal here, which is our swipe device, we're trying to get coverage in the off-line world. that is new for us.

the retailers are pulling us in. we will try to get ubiquitous cover in the next six to 12 months or you can use paypal in any location. >> going back to your consulting days, you doubled down on paypal when ebay for started and they were sending cash through the mail. paypal evolved as ebay did. it is very much associated with ebay and used goods. have you doubled down on paypal as a future strategy for ebay? >> five years ago when i took ov, we had strategic choices to make. turning around the ebay business. i love skype. there was no synergy in the sky

pe portfolio. we got out of that and were happy to do so. i needed to make some bets while turning around the core ebay business. that was mobile and paypal. it was a significant investment in both mobile and paypal. payp is a wonderful as this. >> what is it like to work inside the company as opposed to consulting a company from the outside? >> the truth is, when i was at bain, i was in leadership roles. i was not that od at client partners. i ran that west cot are the firm. a lot of the leadership principles are similar.

what is different is two things -- one is a consumer internet space. in norman's learning experience. in enormous learning experience. there are kids that are building something that i could not even think of. on the innovation of what is i run mobile and areas commerce and social is stunning. i see these things and i think, i never would've thought of that. half of which i don't even understand initially. then you learn and identify the trends. learning has been a wonderful experience that still continues today. running up public companies different than a private company. there are some pros and cons.

that is been a learning experience. >> you have acquired more than 40 cpanies along the way. you have a rather interesting way of taking talent on. most companies that make acquisitions clean house. you take a different tact. please explain. >> is a balance of how to inject innovation in organizations. we drive innovation across the company. there is also a need for seeds of what i would call disruptive innovation. someone that sees the world differently does not know any better, try something different. i found acquisitions are a great way to bring in disruptive innovators. we have made 20 acquisitions roughly in the past two years. 18 where small teams of talent or technology.

a screening criteria is -- does the founder want to stay inside ebay? we looked at 10, 12, 14 founders that stayed. they are getting the chance to innovate inside ebay. i will give an example. what about a company called mil they had a technology that gets all of the local inventories exist when you do a search. a 25 real kid. we put them in charge of ebay local. he comes and says, i have got a great idea. do you know how uber works? he says he was to build a home delivery system for retailers that works just like that.

any retailer can put the inventory in and a consumer can buy and i think i can get it delivered to people's homes for $10 or less, maybe even five. really? [laughter] they're all of these delivery people all over the streets of new york and s francisco. like uber, there is excess capacity of drivers. i'm in a build the same kind of thing so when someone buys something, i will bid it out to the delivery people who will deliver it to the homes within an hour. how will that work? he says, story about it. it.on[t't worry about [laughter] he built in three months and people love it. people go on ebay and it is a free app.

you can shop. buy someing. we charge of five dollars and it will be delivered to you within one or two hours where you are. if someone had brought me a powerpoint or consulting presentation a year ago and said the service could be there, i would have said, no way. but he said, of course it should work that way. there is a real role for these distraught to the innovators. -- disruptive innovators. it has scale. we're trying to be the most attractive home for innovators. >> is profitable these same-day deliveries? >> it is a test and learn. we are only charging the consumer five dollars. boy, the retailer will be willing to subsidize that.

we're testing in san francisco and testing in new york. retailers want to have same-day delivery. we can build a technology platform ande will put our brand on the app because we have people using it. they can all combined together and get home delivery. that is wh we are trying to do. >> we had an inauguration. i went to get your sense of on the economy. also on your bain experience what you thought of the outcome of the election. >> i will answer in the reverse order. h mitt for manyit h years at bain. some of you may know that my wife is an ambassador for

president obama. she was a strong supporter of obama. the photos ask me. people would always ask me. i supported the president for one simple reason -- i like to sleep inside. [laughter] there is more trh to that then you know. if you know my wife. [laughter] on the economy, i hope and i believe the president will get serious on the economy in the second term. i hope you will build a strong economic team that has diverse skills and practical business guilds. -- skills. toe they can use oureach out

business. what is happening in washington is enormously frustrating. the fiscal cliff -- we got solutions out there like simpson-bowles. you may are may not like pieces of simpson-bowles, but at least it is a starting point to have a dialogue and adjust some of thissues you have got to address. my hope is that there'll be a enough restaurant congress in the second terms of that we can begin to get some of the changes that we need to make it our economy will remain competitive on an ongoing basis. >> you are a supporter of the president? >> i see no reason why it cannot be better. we will not create growth and jobs unless there is a stronger

relationship. both the companies and small businesses. we had 25 million active sellers on ebay. roughly three to 4 million of them are small businesses. it is a small business. this operated in small state new york or outside detroit. they're creating jobs were large companies are not creating jobs. we're trying to protect their interests of that they thrive and grow. >> one last question before you open it up to all of you. you have $6 billion of cash. maybe the expected 8 billion. a lot of people expect more acquisitions. any hints of where you are looking? >> our strategy is clear -- r

business generates strong cash. we are blessed with that. we first invest in organic growth. organigrowth in the fourth quarter was 19%. and percent with a 20% margin. -- 19% with a 18% margin. we will make28% margin. -- 28% margin. or as i said earlier, the smaller acquisitions where we by teams and talent. -- buy teams and talent. we have only made really two or three large acquisitions. one is working out very well as

an extension of paypal. g market in korea really cemented our partnership with korea. another is an extension of the ability to serve large retailers. wheeling all intuitively think it is right for our business -- we only do it when we think it is right for our company and provides returns for the company and shareholde. >> questions? in the back. there is a microphone. >> fascinating presentation. i'm the ceo of interactive advertising bureau. one of the biggest buzz phrases is big data. how do you define big data? in your competition with other major data center retailers such as walmart and amazon and potentially apple, how do you

see the competition developing around the acquisition and use of consumer data in marketing advertising and retail? you talk about privacy. how do you view present and future regulatory environments around privacy and whether you are participating in actions to stave off the worst of regulations? >> i will work my would afterwards. -- work backwards. i did not go to this year, but last year -- i did not go to da is year. i syear, but i'm a big believer in that. seco, we are simple commerce

company. our business model works never sharing your data with anyone except you and the person you bought it from. we are not an ad model. we are not a social model. we have questions of what should be shared and what should not. in the court the business model , -- in the core business model, it data in our business is relevant. there's no reason why when you type in something on an ebay search that we should give you the same results that we give rebecca when she types in the same thing. we know what your purchase history is. we should give you a better experience today based on what you have done historically.

we will not share that. we will not share your data with anyone else. i think there is a lot of opportunity to use big data to have a more customized and personalized experience. if you choose to share it with others, that can make it even better. as i said earlier in the broader topic, or needs to be a dialogue around privacy -- and there needs to be a dialogue around privacy. we need a proactive one now and have regulation down the road t care at all it will do is trigger the next wave of innovators to figure out a way around it. >> question right here. >> i would love to hear more

about the individual sellers. what are you doing to make the process easier in addition to perhaps uploading facebook or twitter? i have not sold anything and two years. -- in two years. >> mobile has been huge. we have a lot of consumer sellers still. we are getting 2 million listings a week off mobile devices. if youave something you want to sell, take a picture and boom, you are done. the listing process has been very streamline. the bigger challenge for consumer sellers is selling it. four years ago, if it is a

tuesday or wednesday, you sold something and someone bought it and would ship it over the weekend. that is no longer acceptable. buyers expect more. we are providing services so that you can say i want to sell this, but i want someone else. ebay, can you link this to someone that can get it shipped in a timely fashion? that is what we are working on with consumer sellers so they can provide a competitive experience with retailers. consumer sellers are still an important part of what we do. it is a smaller part. a must have our volume is what we call top rated sellers. small businesses providing retail experience. >> thank you. i will try tonight. >> hi. thank you.

this the big privacy data question. everyone is fundamentally good or something like that. ebay retail business and paypal, you do a lot of fraud prevention. i know you do not give out numbers. can you talk about whether it is going up or down? what are you doing? when you put in things like seller ratings? pey give us a sense of how important that part of the business is? -- can you give us a sense on how important that art of the is this is? >> yes, we invest a lot in fraud. competitive model is that we have competitive fraud models. huge volumes are treated, -- traded.

think about it. stranger to change her. -- stranger. oss. than 3% le those fraud models allow us a safe experience. it is getting safer and safer. we are getting more progress in that ongoing battle. money is moving ide our company. we invest -- inside our company. we invest. we are gaining on that in terms of online fraud and security. the interesting story is that if you look at where most of the online fraud is occurring is that it is incurring in certain countries. we were in russia three years ago. i said there was so much fraud

going on. there was not enough cooperation going on between the russian authorities and those of us in the industry trying to fight fraud. since then, they are participating. governments understand there are certain hotspo for most internet fraud. the government are now . we put over 60 people in jail in romania who were internet fraudsters. alternately, i think that process will continue. -- ultimately, i think that process wi continue. >> there are many competitors abroad. how much of your focus is moving overseas? >> ebay is global.

60% of the revenue is outside the u.s. paypal is 50% outside of the u.s. 25% is cross-border. they're both very global entities. we are continuing to expand globally. there are 2 billion internet users. that'll be 4 billion in the next few years. look at where th growth will be. 80% will be in emerging markets. people accessing the w for the first time in their lives. it can be done through a phone or a laptop. we see enormous growth opportunity. we are growing in those markets . that the leading commerce market in russ. russian consumers coming online want to buy things that they

cannot get locally. th go on to ebay. china is an enormous market. over $6 billion of volume. these are people that may be work second shift in factories. people get great deals all over the world. and domestic china, we are .rohibited from competing goo it is not a level playing field yet. alibaba has done a great job. jack is a great entrepreneur build a great business. we will see if they look to go outside of china. i think there'll be opportunity to work together ver. >> thank you for coming to speak

today. they are for feeling a lot of the business that sellers on your site are doing. will you get more into fulfillment? they have come and gone. dc that see that is a viable business model? the uc that as part of your model of business? >> i hope i can remember all three. %, and we are contentg owning 20%. we will see down the road.

we are competing. we have funding capability. the same thing in mexico. on the distribution centers, some news amazon to get it as a competitor. they are able to provide good service. a small amount can handle it. these smallusinesses provide outstanding return service.

if someone wants to sell something but does not wanto handle fulfillment, we will say, you can drop it off. you drop it off before you listed. retail light standards. -- likes standards. >> there has been franchises that have come and gone. they have not been part of ebay. the biggest part of your failure is the stores have to take so much of a percente to make it worthwhile, yet the sellers do not want to use it because they do not get much back after they sell.

they have certain minimums they can sell. >> i think you are going to see more of it. back in the day, listing was a cumbersome process. figuring out how to get something sold in this marketace was cumbersome. today listing can take less than a minute. the cost of doing things is much lower. they are big and small. we have a thing where if you want to sell your cellphone, we have a partner, so if you go on ebay, and say, here is my iphone 4, we will give you $140 for it, and you say yes.

you send i away. we have a third party thatakes all of this. they do tens of millions of dollars in business, so that is just an example of how a variety of industries are forming that help people sell. it is a different scale than it used to be. >> we will take a question in the middle, and then we are back. >> you stress the importance of privacy. let's say the government comes to you and says we have a terrorist investigation, and we want to know the buying pattern. what do you do about that? >> you hope that request is covered. we comply with the laws of the land would be the simple answer , and we would not operate in

lands where we do not feel good about the laws. >> you are saying there is no guarantee of privacy. >> we comply with the laws of the land. no, there is no guarantee of privacy. if you have done something illegal and they have reason to believe it, and we cannot stop a court order. the reality is it does not happen very often, but we cooperate with law enforcement around the world. it is often us going to them saying, we think there is a problem here. would you investigate? we work with law enforcement all the time to try to identify and online criminals and get them convicted. >> rebecca, are you ok with

that? >> we have done a lot of work on privacy. it is a fascinating and difficult terrain, but i would agrethe powers are expanding on the part of the government terrorism is a present a threat. i agree with your statement, but it is an important to reign over the next couple years. >> i do not think we are different from american express 4or ge. the laws of the land are the laws of the land. >> i would say if we ever saw anything we did not feel comfortable with, i would have raised our hands, and we would not do anything we thought crossed the line. >> you can always call us and tell us.

>> i work in luxury and fashion and beauty. i have a question on food. there has been a lot trying to bring food to the internet. i would like to hear your fox on -- your thoughts on the plan of ebay with food. do belve one day you will sell food on ay? >> i do not know. if you are talking about a grocery delivery, the only place i have seen the working is seoul in. because it is so dense. you can buy cases of water. a case of water, you are paying $6, $7, and it costs more to deliver it and it does to buy the water, so you need a lot of

density. we see that on ebay and off ebay in densities. i do not know if home grocery delivery work in the u.s. walgreen's is a participant, so if you need to paste and shaving cream you can get its delivered -- toothpaste and shaving cream you can get it delivered at home. the other things these devices can change your experience with food, and this is mo going out. if we have a pilot in california with john but juice -- with jamba juice and you say, i wan a smoothie. you order your smoothly, and you say, i will be there, and you walk in, and you pay for it. you go around.

i actuay think the delivery part i talked about earlier there is no reason that could not be delivered to you as well. you think other food items. ordering out and getting things delivered in a convenient way, if y are using delivery capacity that exists in other cities, i think you're going to se more of fat. -- that. does that make sense? >> when you get involved? there is an image of a rotten twinkie on your side. if something is rotten, is that ok? the you ever get into the?

>> maybe someone is into rotten twinkies. now the reality is anyone that off us to take something down, we do. my first week at ebay, what i am confronted with a dilemma. someone has listed a consecrated host. i am catholic, and my tenants, both of them happen to be catholic -- one is dramatically opposed to taking it down and the other said, this is bad. i have got the bishops calling me. in that case, it was not the part of decision. we will take it down if it is a fending any group, we will take -- if it is offending any group, we will take it down, but it is an open marketplace.

if people are into rotten twinkies. if the rotten 20 association asked us to take it down, we probab would. -- rotten twinkie association of us to take it down, we probably would. >> are you a competitor and a partner with credit cards? apparently credit card companies are going to be able to pass on directly the cost of the credit card to consumers, and would that have the potential impact on your relationship with credit cards? >> i see it as a partner with credit cds. you put your credit cards in. if you want to pay with your amex gold card, or you want to pay with your visa mileage plus card, or you want to p with a debit card, or you want to pay

with something else, we give complete flexibility of choice. there is no way we can use our money to pay. we do not compete with them, and we pay a lot of terchange to the current association. we are a technology leader that allows them to be present on line and a more convenient way in mobile and hopefully an alternative way to be present in the offline role. we are unable error and not a competitor. we want a relationship with technology. i view as us a partner. >> one last question. >> good morning.

my question is more along the lines of culture at the bay, -- at ebay and what you do to promote diversity of thought so you have a measurable diversity and inclusion in your organization. >> we are blessed -- frankly, our founder of iranian descent born in france is a true global list, -- globalist, and what he cared about was positively impacted in hundreds of millions of people's lives around the world through trade and particularly through cross border trade, through global connections, the fact our platforms can connect an israeli settler selling to a palestinian buyer.

think about that. in the offline world, that would never happen. online if the palestinian buyer says, that is of great watch, pays money, gets the watch, online they are just two people, and that is three much part of the vision. pierre believes technology platforms can be bringing pple together. now we can cnect people, and we believe that. commerce can bring people together. if that is our core purpose, it attracts a diverseroup of people. we have people from many different cultures. our teain any country are local. if we have global management, it is like the united nations. it is a global organization, and that is the real strength. a lot of people think

differently in different parts of the world, and we benefit from that. >> one last question. >> i am a retailer. my question is of demographics in terms of what percentage of your users, your listeners, buyers online are women, and which are men? >> we love working with your team, and you do some innovative things. we have by huge fashion business, and it is heavily female, and then we have a large consumer electronics and large auto parts business. it really differs by category.

dnepr a lot of the growth and where i see increased engagement, is when the women demographic are engaging more and more. you and i may want to get in as quick as we tehran. -- as we can. they like to engage. >> i see a lot of young women want individually designed

things. it is a little frightening. >> thank you for a fascinating discussion. just a couple of housekeeping notes. you can see excerpts on the website. we look forward to seeing you. i am sure it is going to be an interesting discussion on politics. i will turn it over for closing remarks. >> just three quick thank yous. it is a little warmer. that is why we have such a great turnout. rebecca, you ask questions in a ploy is style, and you are great

partners, and john, you demonstrate to me that yocan actually practice what you preach. maybe there is hope for me. what you did nicely and what you do nicely as well as find new innovations. it takes guts to innovate. we hope to see you

we have had problems with the u.s. soybean crop because of the drought. brazil still looks good, but drought in argentina has a lot of analysts looking at those numbers. the one exception here is cotton. cotton, in terms of stocks, has increased dramatically over the last couple of years. what that is being driven by,

largely, is china. china, because of policies to support producers, have been acquiring a lot of grain. excuse me -- a lot of cotton. you can see that cotton stocks have been increased substantially in china. they currently account for over 50% of total world inventories. on a commodity basis, stocks as percent of use in china is some 120%. a lot of analysts wonder how sustainable that is. china is a large importer of cotton for its textile mills. certainly, with this sort of stock level overhanging the market, i think this will lead to some uncertainty in the cotton market, as we move forward into this year. let us turn to planning -- plantings.

obviously, we are expecting to continue strong plantings, certainly for grains and oil seeds. some new land is coming out of crp. this shows the amount of acres that came out of crp this past fall. around 2.5 million acres, most of that in northern plains. you can see by the coloration of the charts, a lot of the area is coming out of some of the dakotas, where a lot of that area first went in, in the mid- 1980's. this has been historically wheatland. over the past 10 years, a lot of corn and soybeans creeping up in those areas. turning to the planted acres, last year, i think the combined acreage for corn, wheat, and soybeans was some 240 million acres. excuse me -- 230 million acres.

certainly, we have seen some of the largest corn planting since the 1930's. we expect this year for corn to be very strong again. because of strong prices, many were able to get in corn. perfect planning conditions. of course, the world turned ugly in june, as the rain stopped in a lot of key states. this year, we expect planning to be very strong. it favors soybeans a little bit more than it did a few months ago.

as we move toward march, when we put out are planning numbers at the end of march, this is something certainly to look at. we should see some decline in cotton. that is no surprise. we have seen surveys which suggest that. about yield, this is where most analysts are directing their attentions. if you look at the drought monitor, and they are saying few of you have not looked at the drought monitor, if you follow these markets closely, we still have significant drought in the central plains. the good news is, if you were to look at this map six months ago, we would have seen

significant drought in illinois, indiana, and western kentucky. that has improved a lot. the forecast suggests some improvement. more improvement creeping into the western corn belt. the plains still look like they have a persistent dryness. that has an impact on the winter crop. in kansas, oklahoma, and nebraska, currently about 50% of that area, doing a weighted average, looking at state crop conditions reports -- 50% of that is in poor or very poor condition. spring rains are going to be very critical to see how that crop improves. otherwise, i think we could be facing some serious abandonment issues for the winter crops.

rain is obviously critical. what about for the other crops? what we are looking at, at least in our analysis, is a return to trend yields. i think tomorrow's commodity sessions will have a paper on our yield models, and how we incorporate weather in those yield models. i think both of these would result in having record crops for corn and soybeans this year. dramatic improvement, particularly for corn. last year, we lost four billion bushels. we are expecting to rebound on that amount this year. one area where there is concern, and we are participating--anticipating higher abandonment for the hard red winter area.

the soft red portion looks to be better. hopefully, there would be some rebound there, in terms of yields. i think we have seen some improvement. just four or five months ago, as a percent of total production and drought, we have seen 5% or 10% improvement in the last couple of months. if you look at the data, there is little correlation between rainfall in one year and in the next year.

studies have shown that. going into this year, i do not think there is reason to think necessarily that we are going lt to be looking at a poorer crop. there are questions about yield drag because of low subsoil moisture. tomorrow, we will go through that in more detail. i will show you a wonkish economist thing here. i looked at preseason moisture in iowa. i looked at projected yields in iowa, trend yields relative to what we just saw later that year. there is very little direct correlation. some of the yields on that part

of the graph are years you remember. 1998 was a low subsoil year. last year was down a little bit. you also see years we have low subsoil levels. we had record, far above trend. the last thing i want is a clip saying "no relationship between drought and yields." obviously, there is a relationship. it is just to say we will be following this carefully. at least at this point in time, there is no reason to think we will not be looking at normal yields. again, the proof will be

obviously, as we look into spring. as we all know, for corn, the critical month is july, as it always is, in terms of precipitation and temperature. from 2006 through 2012, we saw corn used for ethanol increase by almost 700 million bushels annually. it topped bushels in corn use for 2010, 2011, 2012. what this chart shows our weekly ethanol production numbers from energy information administration.

i have analyzed them, so you get a feel for what they look like, and for an entire year. meeting for the renewable fuel standard, i can see from mid- summer, most weekly numbers annualized have been below the caps. we have reduced our annual corn use for ethanol numbers by 10% last year. while we expect with a record crop that that will rebound a bit, we are still calling for, as we look forward to 2013, 2014 -- we are still calling for about 4.67 5 billion bushes of corn going into ethanol use. the problems are actually on the demand side.

use of ethanol for gasoline -- gasoline consumption was close to 40 billion bushels for 2011- 2013. for penetration, and that gives you 15 billion bushels. instead of that, however, we have seen, because of high prices, gasoline prices, the recession, and energy efficiencies or fuel efficiencies -- increased fuel

efficiencies -- gasoline consumption has declined. that green line is what the energy information administration was rejecting from ethanol for gasoline use in 2008. in the out years, improved fuel efficiencies and a lot of other assumptions. some decline. the most important thing is what is going on over the next three or four years. with some decreases. i think this is a very important piece of the puzzle, at least the outlook puzzle that we have seen. particularly compared to where we were in 2007, when we were talking about year-over-year increases, this is at least, for the next few years,

flattening out corn use for ethanol, and will be an important factor in that market. let me get to the crisis and move over to incomes, and start wrapping up. we should see some significant fall on prices with these record crops. this is not unlike what i was saying last year, and with these sorts of things. he are projecting corn prices, season average prices, below $5 a big drop from where we are. we prices to come down as well. soybeans down. some improvement for rice and cotton. domestic balance sheets should

tighten up a bit. that is obviously going to improve feed margins. declining feed ratios do not necessarily mean problems. i think there is no question, since 2007, with the three big try spikes, we know there have been problems at various times with the livestock, dairy, and poultry sectors. certainly, we have seen tight margins. these are all very high prices for, i think, meat and poultry and dairy markets. what i think will be the real

benefit to this sector will be lower prices on the feed side at the end of the year. hopefully, i think the critical thing, with the problems the cattle sector had -- we lost 3.4 million head over the last four years in kansas, oklahoma, and texas alone. the rest of the nation was pretty constant, losses and gains offsetting. in the southern plains, the drought in texas two years ago and this past year, has affected cattle. we know that 60% of the pastor in this country, over pasture in this country over the summertime, was in drought. we could unfortunately see further liquidation. what this means for food prices

-- we will see some transmission of these higher prices, higher livestock prices, in particular into higher food prices. currently rejecting food inflation to increase by 3% or 4%. there is a session on that later today. if you look at the most recent month, december -- in fact, a report came out today, which i do not have the numbers for. our current levels of inflation, very low. 3.4%, year-over-year, for the most recent month. ers is forecasting 3% to 4% for 2013. high, but not nearly as high as what we saw in 2008, or what we

saw in 2011. as i mentioned at the outset, ers numbers on net cash income, net farm income -- net cash income down a bit this year, at $323.5 billion. we recorded a record in 2012. record receipts the last couple of years -- just phenomenal. a doubling of receipts over the last 10 or 12 years. we have also seen high expenses. some of that has been feed. feed is a critical component for the livestock markets.

looking at net cash incomes, ers looks at farm businesses. these are sort of average farm and business data that ers. of their survey. for livestock, another year where we have seen some decline. we have seen very back, not quite as low as what we saw in 2009. the real story on the livestock issues, i think, is, can we get through the next few months, particularly on the pasture issues and other things, to get into late summer, early fall, where we should start seeing feed prices come down that

would help profitability return to the sector? let me wrap up. let me say this sounds like déjà vu, one of those dejas. you have heard this before. admittedly, very similar to our forecast last year. i think, obviously, the big issue -- the critical factor that people will be following, is the weather. with drought in the nation continuing and a lot of the country, there will be a lot of people concerned about the weather. there will be a lot of people watching it carefully. at least empirical data suggests a return to more normal yields as we move into spring, which should help moderate

prices and improve profitability for these sectors. [applause] >> let me introduce my boss. many of you know his story. if not, here it is. he started as a lawyer in iowa, helping small towns through the farm crisis in the 1970. tragedy hit in his small town, and he became mayor. fast forward. he became a two-term governor in the great state of iowa. a candidate for president of

the united states. and then our secretary of agriculture. he has been giving some tough love talks across the country. tough in that he has pointed out some issues we need to grapple with, in terms of political relevance, and how we make sure that people inside the beltway and across our great country understand the importance of what goes on in rural america. i say tough love, because he does so with passion. he does so with finding ways toe importance entice young people to careers in american agriculture. he is the hardest working secretary of agriculture we ever had. ladies and gentlemen, welcome him to the stage. >> thank you for your leadership on a number of

issues. this is become an integral part of not just this conference, but agriculture and opportunity in rural america. her work has really made a difference in this direct to consumer sales opportunity, which is now a multibillion dollar heart of agriculture. it is amazing. every year, we come here. every year, you give the same damn speech. [laughter] but it could be worse, right? i particularly want to thank senator dashiell for spending a few minutes with it today. folks in washington, d.c., and around the country -- we are

really pleased to have you. everywhere i walk, i see these big posters. we are seeing expanding exports, and an expansion beyond biofuels. we are making more chemicals, fabrics, and fibers. we have the local and regional food system expansions. we see record farm income, record conservation, even more excitement from young people

about agriculture. the other day, i was in iowa. a young lady came up to me and said she wanted to thank usda for the work it has been doing recently. i appreciate that. i assumed she was going to talk about record farm income for the work it has been or record exports. what she wanted to thank us for was that in the 1980's, when she went to school, and majored in agriculture and got her

advanced degree, she said she was a bit humbled, and sort of embarrassed, when she would tell her friends and family what she was doing. but because of what has been happening in agriculture today, because of the activities of usda and the folks in this room, she said agriculture is cool again. people are excited about future careers in agriculture. things seem to be going in the right direction. i began to make the list of all the things we should be concerned about. what dawned on me is, normally, when you talk about agriculture, you talk about the weather, these you may not have control over. the risks, in many cases today,

are man-made. let me give you a few examples. there is risk in the uncertainty, with reference to budgets and the impending sequester, to agriculture. you all know that march 1 will come. if it comes before congress has acted, the sequester will be triggered. what that will mean for usda is, virtually every line item of our budget will be reduced by a certain percentage. that percentage could be somewhere in the neighborhood of 5% to 6%. that is an annual percentage. that means we have to implement this reduction in the remaining portion of the fiscal year, which will be approximately six months.

that means it is really the impact of a 10% to 12% reduction of our remaining resources. unlike normal circumstances, where congress will ask you to reduce funding, but give you flexibility to choose where and how, this is a direct prescription from congress to reduce every line item by the same percentage. if you are fortunate to be in an agency or part of the department that has flexibility, good. in food safety, you have very few lines, and most involve people in labor. you have very little recourse. that is a risk that we now face. because the only way we can absorb the cut of this magnitude is by impacting the people who work in the food safety area of usda. and we all know that when we do that, it does not just impact those workers. it impacts all the processing facilities and plants and production facilities across the country.

there is a way to resolve this. congress can give you flexibility, and say we did not mean every line item across the board, with no flexibility, in six months. or they can come up with a larger deficit reduction package that would avoid sequester. but if they fail to act, then we are required by law to invoke the sequester. if we spend money we do not have, there are civil and possibly criminal penalties associated with that. we take our job very seriously at usda. it is something we do not want to do. it may be something we have to do. this is a risk that is man-made. the same thing is true on march 27. march 27 cons if congress has not continued the budget process, and provided a continuation of the continuing resolution, or passed a budget. theoretically, all government

activity stops. that, of course, would impact our trade promotion efforts, food safety, our ability to provide credit to farmers right at the time they had to finalize the credit opportunities to put their crop in the ground. this is another risk that is man-made and could be avoided. there is a risk associated with not having a five-year farm bill. we know the senate passed a farm bill last year. we know the house agricultural committee passed a farm bill last year. but it did not get done. that now creates uncertainty as to what the safety net will be for farmers who are faced with the drought or the conditions that joe just talked about, who

are, through no fault of theirs, facing economic disaster. because we do not have a farm bill, as livestock producers that were hurt so badly in 2012, were not afforded the possibility to have the kind of disaster assistance that was in effect the year before. they now face a financial risk that is man-made. we need a farm bill. i like to refer to it as a food, farm, and jobs bill. we need to have certainty about what the safety net should be for our farm families. after all, they provide this country with some extraordinary security. we are a nation that can feed itself. make no mistake about this -- this is not something to be taken for granted. many, many countries around the world cannot say that. it makes us a stronger and more secure nation, brought to us by american farmers, ranchers, and producers. they need a safety net. if we are to build this rural

economy, and create economic opportunity for young people raising families in a small community, we have to increase our commitment to a bio economy, where everything we grow can be used to produce virtually everything we need in our economy. it is how you strengthen and build a middle class and rural america. get back to the business of making, creating, and innovating. you cannot continue to see the expansion of local and regional food systems, and the opportunities in rural areas, unless you have a five-year program. you certainly cannot resolve significant trade disputes, including the one we have had with brazil over cotton, which could potentially jeopardize us in this country with the application of serious penalties, without a five-year food, farm, and jobs bill. those are risks in today's agricultural world that can be resolved by congress doing its

job and getting a bill passed. then, there is the uncertainty of labor, another man-made issue. agriculture relies, to a great extent, on immigrant labor. everybody in this room understands and appreciates that a good deal of that labor is not necessarily in this country legally. and that has been the case for a long time. this is a risk to agriculture, and we are beginning to see the implications of that risk,

because we have had crops grown last year that could not be harvested, or cause there simply were not enough hands to pick them. it is important and necessary that we have immigration reform, that we create a system in this country that understands and appreciates the importance of immigrant labor, and respects it. that creates a comprehensive set of reforms. that secures our border. that creates responsibilities on those who are here illegally, to pay a fine, to pay back taxes, to learn the language, and then creates an opportunity for these folks to be here legitimately, so they can provide the labor and work that is necessary for our producers, so we in this country can continue to enjoy the extraordinary diversity of agriculture that we have. and that we can continue to afford the luxury of having some of the least expensive food in the world. despite joe's report about food inflation, 3% and 4%, that is more of a normal rate of inflation. we still enjoy the fact that less than 10% of our paychecks are spent on food. go to most other developed or developing nations, you are

going to pay 15%, 50% of your paycheck for food. not only does the system here create this enormous diversity, and this great food security we enjoy, but it comes to us at an affordable price. but there is a risk, if we do not have comprehensive immigration reform. it is a man-made risk that can be resolved. then, the uncertainty of trade barriers, created by other nations. right now, we are dealing with a decision made by russia to impose a ban as a result of the use here of a chemical. it is not scientifically based, and is contrary to international law. the trade office and our office have stated clearly it is our expectation that russia will reverse that decision. that is another risk to the livestock industry that is man-

made. fortunately, we got some good news yesterday, as a scientific commission from oie, has indicated that the u.s. can now be considered a low risk nation for bse. that will further be confirmed this summer. we got further good news with opening of markets, particularly for our beef. last month, we talked about the opportunity japan is now finding for a wider market in japan, which is good news. we have seen korea, and the opportunity that presents. we have seen mexico reduce its restrictions. hong kong will join that list, by taking boned beef products of any age, and bone-in beef of less than 30 months. but these barriers still exist. which is why it is necessary when you have the resources and ability and personnel to continue to advocate for american farmers and ranchers

all over the world. as these barriers are constructed, we have to tear them down. those are all risks that we face in agriculture today, that are all man-made. these are resolved by congress and the international community, following science and rules. there are, however, risks we cannot control. joe talked about the drought. following the consequences of the drought last year, the president directed us to create a drought task force, made up of all federal agencies, to try to mitigate the impacts and effects of drought. that led us to begin thinking at usda about steps we can take to help producers during a difficult time. we took a series of steps to try to mitigate the consequences. we opened up crp land, and

changed premium payments, things of that nation -- that nature. it also got us thinking -- were there other steps, other things we should be doing, to provide help and assistance? it occurred to us perhaps we should be focused more acutely on the need to encourage multi- cropping through the united states, in order for us to do a better job of conservation, to create biomass that could be a revenue source, and to potentially allow us to conserve precious water resources, which would in turn allow us to get through these drought circumstances in a more favorable circumstance. we have begun a process of looking at ways in which we could provide assistance. you will be fortunate to hear from a fellow by the name of david brant, who has a no till

nutrient management system he has put in place since the 1970s, that involves multi- cropping. it saves about $100 an acre on nitrogen. it has increased its corn yield seven to 10 bushels an acre. that is something that ought to get everyone's attention. at usda, we ought to be looking at ways we could reduce the man- made barriers to multi- cropping, so that that could be another strategy for managing risk, recognizing there are different types of multi- cropping, whether it is double crops, or an integrated livestock arrangement, or for a street. we will spend time better looking at crop insurance programs that discourage multi- cropping, looking at the effect on the yield of primary crops, and the supply chain and

delivery system, so we can encourage more of this activity. we will use our grant money to provide some financial assistance. we intend to develop an atlas that will provide producers a lot of information about what currently is working in multi- cropping arrangements around the country. there are great examples. we will provide information on the steps to reduce those barriers that we have created within usda. and we hope that we will do a better job of improving our communication about the conservation benefits that will come from multi-cropping, and give us yet another tool to deal with a changing agriculture, and managing the

risk of weather. as we started thinking about multi-cropping, it occurred to us we have a diverse agriculture in this country. there are different production systems that people want to use. some folks might want to use ge technology. some might want to go a conventional way. some people might want to be organic reducers. it is important for us to recognize and to respect all production processes, and to make sure everybody has the opportunity to choose the type of operation that is best for their family and themselves. that is why we put together a group of folks, and we challenge them to think about how we could create a system and support in this country, were different production processes could coexist in the same geographic area, recognizing that this is a tough question,

and that there are passions on all sides of this issue. we put 22 people in a room for about a year and a half. they have great leadership from russell redding. these folks worked really hard to come to a set of recommendations and conclusions. they basically modeled what we ought to be doing in this town more frequently, which is coming together and figuring out where the common ground is, where the moderate middle is. they came up with a series of recommendations through what we call the ac 21 committee. we are posting on our website the next steps in that process, so we can tell those 22 folks who worked hard that we are following their recommendations. we can't help producers of all types that there are ways we can provide help and reduce the risks that may be associated with different production processes trying to live in the same space.

you are going to engage in research and look at ways in which we can create measures to strengthen this notion of coexistence. we need to know how often there may be circumstances where crops are compromised as a result of activities in other areas. we are going to do case studies, and will better understand from those case studies exactly what the challenges and barriers are to this notion of coexistence. we hope to be able to develop best practices, to be able to provide information, so as folks are looking at coexistence plans or stewardship efforts, they will know precisely what works best. we are going to create a competitive grant. that grant will basically fund a conference that will be held this year. we will bring experts in to

discuss information about gene flow, so we have a better understanding of precisely what happens, and can mitigate the risk that could be damaging to someone else's crop. we will continue to look at ways in which we can indemnify or compensate those who may have suffered an economic loss. we are going to have nas review its data to have a better idea of how to price organic crops. there is a premium associated. they are, in a sense, a different commodity. some of the normal practices, normal surveying techniques, may not work quite as well for organics as they do for conventional agriculture. that will give us enough information to do a better job in terms of how to set up

insurance policies and programs for these organic crops. and we will focus on seed quality. this spring, we will launch for the first time the national genetic advisory council. we will be tasking that counsel with looking at how we job in terms of how to set up insurance policies and programs for these organic crops. and we will focus on seed quality. this spring, we will launch for the first time the national genetic advisory council. we will be tasking that counsel with looking at how we can evaluate the availability of non-ge seed for producers who might be working and producing in ge-sensitive markets. we will look at monitoring, maintaining the purity of publicly-held germ classes, because there is concern about that. as will mitigate the risk associated when folks want to do things a little bit differently, in the same general space. it is part of managing risk. the long-term risk we will face, with a changing climate -- i will conclude with this. there is no question that the climate is changing. we recently furnished to assessments from usda on the impact of changing climates on agriculture and forestry.

the conclusions were pretty obvious. higher temperatures lead to more intense weather patterns. more intense weather patterns lead to greater stress for crops and livestock. and increase tree mortality. we at usda have a responsibility to figure out ways in which we can mitigate the risks of something we really cannot control. when it happens, we cannot control when a drought occurs. we cannot control when a horrible tornado hits, or when flooding occurs. but we can take steps to mitigate the impacts and effects of that. here is what we have done, and here is what we are going to do. we released this year the first usda climate change adaptation plan, and we are outlining practical steps that can be taken right now to reduce this risk. we are expanding forecasting, so we have that her models to give people a better sense of

what happens with intense weather patterns, which are a risk we need to control. we are going to win sent and increase our in soil health management, creating systems for farmers and ranchers they might be interested in. we are going to have rma work with his partners to create a web portal that will provide information on climate and weather. in turn, we will have enhanced ability to adjust losses more quickly and accurately. we have challenged the forest service to begin incorporating practical applications for mitigation and adaptation strategies for our planning and management system work.

the next steps require developing a roadmap. we want to provide practical advice to our farmers and ranchers, in ways in which they can reduce risk through the use of their property. we want to provide better support materials, so that they can create techniques and technologies that will allow them to mitigate the impact. we saw this with the drought. it is amazing. despite the drought, we still

had a relatively large corn crop, even the extent and severity of the drought last year. the reason is the technology and the techniques our farmers used. had a relatively largewe need tt climate change research. we need to make sure we have resources going into this research, so we can provide you with the information that allows you to manage this risk. we need to improve our outreach and extension, so the outreach we have, and our ability to provide help and assistance, is disseminated more widely. and we will be able to do this by organizing this effort, perhaps, around regional hubs, where we will recognize the differences of climates and the differences that climate has on various crops that are grown in different parts of the united states. we understand and appreciate that different regions have different needs. we will be very aggressive in this effort. we appreciate and understand after the floods of 2011 and the drought of 2012 the folks need assistance and help. by taking these actions, hopefully we can mitigate and manage risk. rural america as a result of most of the farming and ranching and production that explains in rural america, it is the number one place for food production in this country. it is the number one place for most of the water that is

consumed everywhere. it is the number one place for the production of energy of whatever source -- oil, natural gas, or renewals. it is the source of a number of those who bravely serve in our military. people in those places require us to do everything we can to allow them to continue to help us become a stronger and more secure nation. they will be able to deal with weather related risks. they have historically. what they need is for us in washington, d.c. to act, cooperate, to agree, to compromise, and to get the process so we are not faced with budget uncertainty.

we need to have a five-year farm program that provides a strong safety net and greater economic growth. we need to continue to knock down trade barriers. we need to resolve farm labor issues with with an immigration law. we at usda will do everything we can to make that happen. we need you engaged in this process and encourage those in congress to help us to help you. we want to continue to make agriculture cool. agriculture is the answer to the moral dilemma of our times. how do we feed our populations as resources become scarce? we need to mitigate the impacts

of climate change. we need a new -- it will help spur an american economy that is focused on innovating and growing and manufacturing and exporting. that is why this is important. the long-term security and safety of this nation is absolutely dependent on managing these risks we have identified today. it is that important for this country. you all can help. one man who understands this better than most is tom daschle. i can say a lot of things about tom daschle. i can talk about his military

career in the air force. i can talk about his service in the house of representatives and his extraordinary leadership in the senate. the only person to serve as a majority and minority leader. i have said a lot about this man in terms of what his counterparts thought of him. i prefer to talk about tom daschle the father and grandfather. i think you can tell the measure of a man or a woman by the children. tom has got three great kids. i had the pleasure of knowing all of them. his daughter is an award- winning journalist. his son nathan is a social entrepreneur. his daughter lindsay, my favorite -- he cannot say that -- works at usda.

she did an extraordinary job of helping to lead a first ever effort called the rural council when president obama established a council of all federal agencies that is involved in rural america. lindsay basically led that effort. she left usda because she had a call to help kids in trouble. she is pursuing work in social work. three great kids, four great- grandchildren. that says a lot about tom daschle. he will share with you today his insights. i saw him the other day at a lunch in a restaurant in

washington, d.c. what impressed me the most was that virtually no one entered that restaurant without stopping at his table. we are fortunate to have them here today. ladies and gentlemen, tom daschle. [applause] >> thank you. it is so nice to be with all of you and be here this morning. only at a conference can you hear four speakers by 9 a.m. tom gave an eloquent and powerful analysis of the risks we face in agriculture, man- made and natural. it is a reminder yet again of the extraordinary leadership that we have in our agriculture today. i consider him a very dear friend. an unparalleled public servant. someone that i admire for so many reasons, but in particular

because of his mentorship of that young daughter of mine, lindsay. i thank him for all he does not only for my family, but for all of us in each and every day. i also want to thank to other people for their thoughtful presentations today. talk about dedicated servants with selfless determination. you have freedom right at this table. i'm honored to be part of this program. [applause] being here, i'm reminded of an open door meeting that i had in a rural part of south dakota.

several years ago, in small towns, we do not have choice when it comes to where we meet. it is often times in the local café/bar. i used to hold public meetings. i know tom has done them in iowa for many years. and this particular open-door meeting, someone interrupted me. i have a question! he had been at the bar for most of the day. i could tell that by the way he started his question. tell me, tom daschle, what is the difference between a democrat and a republican? sir, when you are sober, i will give you an answer to that question. he said, when i'm sober, i do not give a damn. [laughter] the truth is, we should care. agriculture is not republican or democratic. it is not partisan at all.

rather than divide us, it should unite us. as i look over this crowd, i see unity among all of you. we have a special term in dakota -- i was very fortunate to spend 30 years on these issues in congress. i've attempted to put rural america's agenda on the national agenda. since i left the senate, i'm reminded of agricultural issues. food security issues. it is that the prairie's edge. these are national issues. they are global issues. today farming and food security are beginning to receive the attention that they deserve. president obama has launched a

new alliance for food security and nutrition with the goal of raising 50 million people out of poverty in the next decade alone. farmers are having their own online dating service. the most talked about super bowl commercial, courtesy of the late harvey, was a heartwarming tribute to the american farmer. what is that kenny chesney song? "she thinks my tractor is sexy"? if not sexy, increasingly critical and increasingly important. i'm glad to be here. it is appropriate that we are here today.

it turns out that it was february 21, 1865 -- i will not give you a pop quiz. it could've easily been labeled one of the most important inventions in history. they called it the plow that broke the plains, and it did. by replacing cast iron with smooth innovation, it opened up swaths of land for cultivation. it made it possible for my hometown to exist. hometown to exist.